The secret of Craigend
by LoSa
Summary: Teen Power Inc story #5. While sorting out things in a little storeroom in the old people's home "Craigend", the gang found old diaries and learnt about a mystery, which had happened in "Craigend" a very long time ago. Tom's narration.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1. Ruby's diaries**

The day was really hot. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and looked at the others. The whole gang – Nick, Liz, Elmo, Sunny and Richelle – was here, in the little storeroom in the back part of "Craigend", the old people's home. The Craigend family was one of the most prominent and rich families in Raven Hill, they owned a lot of land in the old days. We often visited "Craigend" and got on with Matron, who was our constant client. This time she asked us to make an inventory of old things of the Craigend family. Miss Ruby Craigend, the last member of the family, had this house turned into a retirement home many years ago. Since then old things, documents and books, belonged to the Craigend family, had been piled in a small storeroom in the back part of the house behind the kitchen. Matron always wanted to sort out them, but she always had a lot of other things to do and had no time for it. Finally she decided that Craigend's things didn't deserve to be piled in a closet and that was when she thought of us, Teen Power Inc. And here we are, in the small, stuffy storeroom with only one tiny, dusty window, sorting out the old, dusty things and writing down their names into the account books.

I guess all these things would have been quietly lying here for many years, and no one would have remembered about them, if some distant relatives of the Craigend family hadn't decided to visit Raven Hill. When Matron heard about it, she decided to decorate "Craigend" with things from the storeroom.

Sunny came into the room, dragging a very old stepladder. We needed the stepladder to reach up to the top of the shelf stand, because the shelf stand there was very tall. So we decided that Sunny, as the most adroit and smallest member of the team, would climb on the top of the shelf stand and hand the things to me, one by one. My task was to stand on the top of the stepladder, take things from Sunny and pass them to Nick, who had to stand on the middle step of the stepladder and pass the things to the others. We decided to put all things from the high shelves on the floor and only then to write down them into the account book.

'Stop dawdling, Tom,' Sunny smiled at me.

I smiled back. Sunny's a good friend. I can trust her. Melanie's picture floated in my mind and I felt as if a cold hand squeezed my heart. I always felt this when I thought about Melanie and her betrayal. I had met Melanie in the night club and fell in love with her at first sight. I remembered how I was waiting for her and accidently saw her kissing with another guy. She just started dating with another guy without even telling me about it. I've never thought that feelings can hurt you so much. But Mel was a really cool girl, though my friends didn't agree with it. They'd never said it of course, but I knew it. Sunny was the only one I had told about Mel's betrayal. I didn't want the others to know about it. Although I was sure that they knew. In Raven Hill High gossips spread very quickly.

I shook my head. I should get her off my mind. Nothing good would come of it. But it was so difficult to forget her. I shook my head again and forced myself to concentrate on the job.

I rushed to Sunny and helped her to drag the heavy stepladder over to the shelf stand.

'Okay, I'm going,' she said and climbed up the steps. The old stepladder began to rock threateningly.

'I guess this ancient stepladder also belonged to the Craigend family,' Nick snorted.

'I don't know if it's one of Craigend's things,' Elmo muttered, grabbing the stepladder and trying to make it stand steadily, 'but it isn't new. It's a fact.'

'Of course it isn't new,' I grinned. 'This thing looks as if it can ruin any moment.'

'Sunny, don't climb there,' Liz began to worry. 'You can fall.'

'I'm okay,' Sunny replied calmly. 'Don't worry, Liz. Just hold the ladder tightly.'

She quickly climbed up on the top step of the ladder, crept onto the shelf stand and sat down on the dusty shelf.

'It's okay,' she said down to us. 'This shelf stand is quite steady. Tom, climb up.'

Frankly I didn't feel like climbing there at all. For one thing I was allergic to dust and I always was afraid of heights. And for another thing, this ladder didn't seem reliable to me. But I sighed and started up the steps. When I reached the middle step, the ladder started to rock so violently that I nearly fell down. I stopped and clutched the rails of the stepladder for dear life.

'Hold it tightly,' I shouted to the others.

'We hold it, don't be afraid,' Liz and Elmo assured me. 'Obviously the floor isn't level here, that's why the ladder is rocking.'

'You know, Tom,' Richelle said crossly, sitting on a chair as far as possible from the dusty shelf stand, 'Matron climbs up and down this stepladder all the time, without any help. But you, a big guy, are afraid, though two people are insuring you.'

'Shut up!' I snapped. 'If you're so incredibly clever you can climb there then.'

Richelle gave me a superior glance.

'I can't climb up there,' she said. 'I'm in the skirt.'

She wore a pretty, but very short skirt today, which emphasized her long, beautiful legs. As if she's come at a party, not to work, I thought with irritation. 'I don't mind if you climb up in your skirt, Richelle,' I said out loud.

'No way,' Nick growled. 'Don't show off, Moysten. Climb up, will you? I don't want to be here all day.'

I started to climb up the steps quickly.

'Hey, Tom, slow down a bit,' Elmo panted from below. 'The ladder is rocking, we can hardly hold it.'

'You're hard to please,' I muttered as I climbed on the top step. 'Climb quickly, climb slowly.' I tried to stand upright, but at that moment the stepladder rocked so violently that I nearly stumbled down.

'Damn!' I clutched at the shelf. Probably people feel the same when it's an earthquake.

Nick climbed on the third step of the stepladder, counterpoising it with his weight. 'Is that better?' he asked.

'I don't think so,' I grumbled.

'Let's get it over with,' Sunny said and handed a pile of books to me.

I let go of the shelf and reached for the books. The stepladder immediately started rocking from side to side.

'Hey, stop that, you idiot!' Nick barely kept his footing.

'Now you know how I feel,' I sneered mischievously.

I clutched at the shelf again. 'Hold it tightly,' I yelled down to Liz and Elmo. Clutching at the shelves I slowly stood upright. Now I could stand on the top of the stepladder more or less steadily. I'd say I felt even comfortable, if it hadn't been for my fear of heights.

'That's better,' I said down to the others, taking the books from Sunny and passing them to Nick. 'At least nothing is rocking here. This shelf stand is so old,' I went on chattering. 'As you know most of ancient things are everlasting and…' I didn't manage to say what I wanted to say because at that moment there was the loud crack of breaking wood. Sunny yelled. Huge clouds of dust flew to the ceiling. Then I felt the ground quake under my feet. Liz and Richelle squealed.

A moment later their voices were muffled by an awful crash. Something hit me on the head and I guess I lost consciousness, because the next thing I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder.

'Tom, are you okay?'

I opened my eyes. Liz and Elmo bent over me.

'Where am I?' I asked weakly.

'You've fallen from the stepladder,' Elmo explained gently. 'The shelf stand suddenly started to break. Nick managed to jump from his step, but you didn't. And everything from the shelves fell right onto you.'

'You were falling so terribly,' Liz looked at me, her face was completely pale. 'I was afraid that you'd break all your bones.'

I tried to move with my arms and legs. They moved. It's a good sign.

'I'm okay,' I sighed. 'My body is just aching all over, but nothing's broken.'

I sat up and looked around. Nick stood aside, brushing dust off his clothes and muttering something under his breath. Richelle helped him, looking anxious.

I struggled to my feet. 'Sunny, are you okay?' I looked around. Sunny wasn't anywhere in sight. I looked up. '_What_?' I yelled.

There was no shelf stand any more. The old shelf stand turned into a huge pile of magazines, books, folders, statuettes, boxes and wooden boards. 'Sunny!' I squealed in horror and rushed to this pile.

We found Sunny under the pile of books and magazines. Her face was very pale. She didn't seem to breathe.

'She isn't breathing,' I bent down to her chest.

'Sunny!' Liz squealed.

'Don't stand like a log, ring the ambulance,' I roared to the others. 'Quickly!'

'No,' Sunny groaned weakly. 'Don't ring the ambulance. I'm okay.'

I helped her to sit up. She leant back against the wall, groaning and checking herself out.

'I'm okay,' she mumbled. 'It was just a faint.'

Liz rushed to her and gave her a tight hug. I sighed with relief. Luckily Sunny's so agile. If someone else had been on her place, he or she would have ended worse.

'You're a clumsy idiot, Moysten,' Nick grumbled.

I didn't answer, just rubbed my leg. 'Damn, it's aching,' I muttered.

'You deserve it,' Nick grinned mischievously. 'Who asked you to use these ancient shelves as rails? You could kill Sunny and me.'

'What's up?' Matron stormed into the room. 'My God!' she said quietly, looking around at the great mess. 'Oh, I'm so sorry! If only I knew that this shelf stand is so weak! I wouldn't ask you to work here! Oh, you could be seriously injured!'

'We won't give up now,' I said in a tone of a warrior, who'd got his first experience of fire.

'We can't leave this mess and just go away,' Liz added.

'That's the point,' Matron sighed. 'The relatives will arrive soon. I can't imagine what they'll think of us when they see this mess.'

'Matron, we'll clean the room, don't worry. But could we open the window?' Elmo asked. 'It's so hot and stuffy here. And dusty now.'

'I don't know,' Matron shook her head. 'That is I don't mind, of course, but I've never opened this window. But you can try of course.'

Elmo came up to the window and twisted the handle. But no matter how much he jerked it, the window didn't open.

'Tom, you go outside and push it from there,' Elmo commanded.

'I don't think it's a good idea to ask Tom to do something after what he's done with the shelf stand,' Nick drawled. 'At best he'll just break something again, at worst we'll all blow up together with "Craigend" and its residents.'

'Drop dead, Kontellis,' I grumbled and limped towards the door.

I came out into the garden, walked round "Craigend" and found the proper window. It wasn't very difficult. I put my hands on the window and started to push it. At the same time Elmo pulled it in the room. At first nothing happened. But then the situation changed very abruptly and unexpectedly. The window threw open and I flew into the room, cannoned into Elmo and we crashed down onto the same pile of books and magazines from the shelf stand. My body acquired a few new bruises and grazes.

'I reckon I've done enough physical exercises for today,' I muttered, scrambling to my feet.

'You manage to open this window!' Matron exclaimed admiringly.

'Yeah,' Nick drawled. 'Tom's opened it. But I'm afraid you'll never close it now.'

He bent down and picked up the broken handle.

'I'll call the carpenter,' Matron said doubtfully and went out of the room.

'Okay guys, let's go back to work,' Sunny started to collect old folders.

I sighed and began to help her. So did the others. Suddenly a small piece of paper flew out of Liz's folder. Elmo bent down to pick it up.

'Hey! Look here!' Liz exclaimed. 'It's a diary,' she opened one of the notebooks in the folder. 'Wow! It's Ruby Craigend's diary.'

'What is this then?' Elmo asked quietly.

He was holding a piece of paper, where something like a site plan was drawn. Nick came up to him and had a closer look. 'It seems familiar,' he drawled thoughtfully.

'Yeah,' Elmo nodded, studying the plan. 'Look. This is the park. This is the harbor. And this is the church,' he said, pointing at the little pictures on the plan. 'And the graveyard near the church. Listen,' he whispered, 'it's the plan of Raven Hill. And "Craigend" is in the centre.'

'_What_!' Liz exclaimed, opening her eyes wide.

'Elmo's right,' Nick whispered excitedly. 'Look, there're many crosses all over the plan.'

'This plan flew out of Ruby's diaries,' Elmo said. 'It's weird. Maybe we can find other interesting things there?'

'Maybe,' I nodded.

'Tell you what,' Nick looked at us, his eyes alive with curiosity, 'let's take this folder away from here. I'm sure we'll find something interesting there.'

'I don't think Matron will mind. I'll ask her,' Liz suggested.

'She won't mind, of course,' Nick nodded. 'But I don't want to attract attention. Let's see what's in this folder and then we'll just return it on its place.'

'It'd be better,' Elmo agreed with him. 'I don't think Matron will notice if one folder from this mess disappears,' he added quickly, noticing that Liz frowned disapprovingly. 'Don't forget that Ruby Craigend was a friend of my grandfather's. And my grandfather liked mysterious stories.'

Having received such encouragement, Nick quickly shoved the dusty folder into his backpack.

We went back to work. We decided to split into two groups. Liz, Elmo, Sunny and I sorted out things, dictated their names, state and number of things to Nick and Richelle, and orderly stacked them up. Nick and Richelle sat on convenient chairs and wrote down what we dictated into the account books.

Finally we decided to finish the job for the day, said goodbye to Matron and went outside. We walked round "Craigend", strolled along the garden and into the Glen, the patch of bush between "Craigend" and Raven Hill Park. We settled down on our clearing and Nick pulled the folder out of his backpack.

The folder was old and dusty. There were six thin notebooks inside. I grabbed one of them and opened. The flourish writing on the first page read: "May 21, 1936. Miss Ruby Craigend, sixteen years old".

'Wow!' I breathed, leafing through the diary.

The others took a notebook each. All of them were Ruby's diaries. Struggling through the old orthography and flourish handwriting, we tried to find something interesting. In Richelle's notebook was a description of Ruby's school days. Nick was reading about the journey to an old auntie. Elmo was reading about Ruby's closest friends – Alfie Bigge, Elmo Zimmer, and Pearl Plummer. Pearl was still alive. She lived here in "Craigend" and Liz visited her every Friday. Elmo Zimmer was Elmo's grandfather. Liz was reading about Ruby's overseas journey.

I had the most romantic part of the diary, where young Ruby wrote about the secret and unrequited love for her friend Alfie Bigge.

'Rubbish,' I muttered finally, completely exhausted by her flourish handwriting.

'What's there?' Sunny enquired.

'About love and nothing more,' I explained. 'Nothing about the plan.'

'About love?' Liz grabbed my notebook. 'But it's the most interesting part!'

'Hang on,' I stopped her. 'Let me read my part to the end. Then you can read this ancient soap opera as long as you want.'

I turned a few pages, but didn't find anything interesting for me.

'Hey,' Elmo yelled suddenly. 'I've found something about the plan.' He fell into silence again, with his nose stuck in the notebook. We all stared at him expectantly.

'So?' I exclaimed impatiently.

'Wait a minute,' Elmo waved me away. 'Listen. "Our old house steward Alex told me a story today. From his words I concluded that my grandfather, who'd built this mansion, was afraid of thieves. He ordered to dig a few secret tunnels, which he could use to escape if someone attacked the house. A few secret tunnels had been dug. Alex even gave me the plan of these passages. As he said, it was the last copy of the plan. All other copies were burned. Although Alex likes to stretch the truth, you shouldn't believe in everything what he says. But it doesn't matter. The main thing is that I have got this plan. I'm looking forward to telling my friends about it. Elmo will be over the moon. He loves such mysterious stories. He wants to be a journalist when he grows up. I'm sticking this plan here, just in case. By the way, Alex also told me about a terrible mystery, which had happened in one of these passages. But I'll write about it later. My Mum is calling me. I have to go."' Elmo stopped reading.

'Don't stop, Elmo!' Liz pleaded. 'Read further.'

'I can't,' he spread his hands. 'The diary is over.'

'No!' I grabbed the notebook from his hands.

Elmo didn't lie. There were several blank sheets in the notebook, but young Ruby Craigend didn't write anything anymore.

'We should check every notebook and every folder in the storeroom tomorrow,' Nick said. 'Probably other parts of the diary are in another folder.'

We just looked at each other and nodded silently.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. Tom the clown**

The next day was Monday. I met the others in the school yard.

'I was thinking,' Elmo was saying when I came up to them, 'that it's quite weird. Ruby, Alfie, Pearl and Granddad were a team, just like we are now. And so many years later we've found Ruby's diary and learnt about a mystery, which they tried to solve.'

'I reckon that it's very strange,' I said importantly.

'A very clever remark,' Nick snorted.

I clenched my fists in my pockets, but didn't say anything. Kontellis had been irritating me even more than usual lately.

'Speaking of learning,' Sunny turned to me. 'Tom, do you remember that old Larson promised to ask you today?'

'Yeah, I do remember,' I sighed heavily.

I've never been a good student. I wasn't good at mathematics, science, history and other subjects like that. But my main problem was poetry and classical literature. I just couldn't force myself to read long and boring classical books. And no matter how I tried, I couldn't learn long poems by heart. That was why my relationship with Mr Larson, our English teacher, was tensed. A couple of weeks ago, Mr Larson said that it was his duty to "help me to improve my knowledge of classical poetry". I personally reckoned that it wasn't necessary, because my knowledge of classical literature was enough for me. But no one asked my opinion, of course. So Mr Larson gave me a special homework – to learn by heart ten poems.

'By the way,' I started looking around. 'Have you seen Quistok? He promised to help me.'

'Are you going to make Zane answer the poems?' Richelle looked at me.

'No,' I shook my head. 'He promised to make a cheat sheet for me.'

'Listen to Quistok and you're knee deep in trouble,' Nick jeered.

'He says everything will be okay,' I objected.

'He always says so,' Elmo shook his head disapprovingly, 'But then he and everyone, who'd tangled with him, are deep in trouble again and again.'

'You could have learnt these poems yourself,' Liz added. 'It isn't so difficult.'

'I couldn't,' I grumbled. Finally I noticed Zane and began to wave to him vigorously.

'So? Have you brought it?' I yelled as he came up to us.

'Don't make a fuss, Moysten. Everything's okay,' Quistok grinned all over his face. 'My sister Zeny and I didn't sleep a wink last night, making this thing for you. Of course I've brought it.'

'Great,' I beamed.

'Don't hurry with conclusions,' Nick drawled.

'Now,' Zane said ignoring him, 'English is your third lesson. Right? So you have enough time to get some practice.'

'To get some practice?' I repeated in astonishment.

'Yeah,' Quistok nodded. 'We've made a great, but a little bit difficult thing. You have to practise using it. Clear?'

'Oh, sure,' I nodded.

'Let's go to the men's room then,' Zane commanded. 'There're too many kids here.'

I nodded again and we all started for the school building. There we came across Brent Howe, our classmate.

'Brent, what a cool boots,' Richelle immediately noticed big boots made of crocodile skin on Brent's feet.

'My father brought them from Africa yesterday,' Brent explained. 'By the way, he caught this crocodile in the Nile himself,' he added proudly.

'With a fishing rod?' Nick enquired, grinning.

'I don't know,' Brent didn't notice irony in Nick's words. 'Maybe with a fishing rod or maybe with a spinning rod.'

'Come on,' I dragged Quistok towards the men's room. Nick and Elmo followed us. Obviously they also wanted to see Quistok's invention.

At the toilet, Zane opened his bag and pulled out a few elastic bands, a folding frame, two little rollers and a roll of paper tape, written all over with tiny handwriting. When I saw this stuff I really was impressed.

'What's that?' I asked with fascination, grabbing the folding frame.

'Hang on,' Quistok grabbed it back. 'Be quiet, Tom. You two,' he turned to Nick and Elmo, 'I need your help.'

They obediently came up to us. Quistok's inventions always could intrigue anyone.

'Hold it,' Zane handed two parts of the frame to Elmo. 'You,' he looked at Nick, 'tie these two things together at right angles with the elastic band. Don't move, Tom. Otherwise we'll never assemble my cheat sheet on you.'

The three of them worked in silence for a while. Then other kids began to come into the men's room, and of course, they asked what was going on. Then almost all of them stayed there. Everyone was dying to see how this thing, which Nick had already called "Quistok's cheat gadget", works.

Finally assembling was over. Now I looked like a patient of a surgeon. My left arm was enfettered into the folding iron frame, where Zane carefully fixed two little rollers using the elastic bands. Then he adjusted the roll of paper with the poems on one of the rollers.

'Press here,' Zane went on giving me instructions, 'the rollers will start turning and the cheat sheet will drive onto your palm. Then, when you don't need it, you should pull this elastic band, and the cheat sheet will drive back. Look. Imagine that you've read a part of the text from the sheet on your palm. Then you should press this button and the rollers will start turning, giving you the next part of the text. Clear?'

Zane pulled one of the elastic bands and the paper tape, written all over with the poems, started to wind on the empty roller.

'Cool,' Sid Mish exclaimed admiringly. 'Zane, you're a genius!'

'I know,' Zane puffed out his chest.

Elmo also stared admiringly at the invention. Nick looked superior, as usual.

'So, everything's done. Put on the blazer, Tom,' finally Quistok commanded.

I did what he said. 'I feel uncomfortable in it,' I complained, jerking with my shoulder. 'I hate blazers.'

'You have to wear it,' Quistok objected. 'You need long, straight sleeves to use this cheat sheet. That's why I told you to put on a blazer.'

'I know,' I pronounced sadly.

At that moment the bell rang. We all had to go to our classes. During the first lesson Zane continued instructing me, sending letters to me. But I was afraid to spoil this difficult thing. That was why till the end of the lesson I studied how this thing worked in theory.

At the recess I wanted to practise using this thing, but other kids, who had already heard about Quistok's inventions by that time, crowded around me all the time. As a result I had to keep off them instead of practising.

During the next lesson I managed to understand how this thing worked. But again I had to stop practising, because my actions made the teacher angry. My next lesson was English. So I had only one recess for practice. As soon as the bell rang, I dragged Quistok to the back part of the school yard, as far as possible from other kids. There he finally explained to me how to use this thing. But to be honest, by this time I started to think that it'd be much easier just to learn the poems. But it was too late.

'Have you understood how it works?' Quistok asked me.

'I guess so,' I sighed desperately. 'But honestly, I won't mind if someone helps me without this thing.'

'Don't worry,' Quistok comforted me. 'Everything'll be all right. Come on.'

We ran into the English faculty room and sat down at vacant desks. I began to shake all over. The situation got worse, because Elmo and Sunny had other classes. Richelle was useless. Liz was sitting in the centre of the classroom. She wouldn't be able to help me. So I had to rely only on Quistok and Kontellis. At that moment Mr Larson, our English teacher, came into the classroom. The time of reckoning had come.

Mr Larson strode over to his desk and sat down on his chair. I hid behind Brent's wide back.

If only Larson forgot about me, I thought desperately. I knew it was silly, though. Mr Larson never forgets about anything.

'Well, well,' he droned. 'I guess that first we'll listen to Tom Moysten, who is going to tell us a few poems.

'What poems?' Simon Luper yelled cheerfully.

'Stand up, Luper,' Mr Larson barked. Simon obediently stood up. 'Don't you know, Luper, that students shouldn't shout in the class?

'Is that so, Mr Larson?' Horse cut in immediately.

'And you stand up, Horsety,' Mr Larson growled.

Maybe he'll forget about me? A hope raised in my chest again.

Mr Larson started to reprove Horsety and Luper. But despite all my hopes, he wasn't going to let them waste time of the lesson.

'I don't want to deal with you today,' he said. 'Now. Moysten, come here', he turned to me.

'Good luck, Tom!' Howe yelled, grinning.

Mr Larson took no notice this time. 'So, Moysten,' he looked me up and down as I wandered up to his desk, trembling all over. 'From what poem would you like to start?'

I nearly answered that I didn't want to start at all. Because on my way from my desk to Mr Larson's desk I realized that I'd forgotten everything.

'So, Moysten,' the teacher said to me again. 'You've learnt the poems, haven't you?'

'Yes, I have,' I mumbled.

'Tell me from what you want to start, then.'

'You tell me,' I mumbled desperately.

'Okay then. I want to hear the famous "The Song of Wandering Aengus", by W.B. Yeats,' the teacher said.

'Sure,' I started to rummage under my arm.

'Why are you itching?' the teacher stared at me in panic.

'I'm not itching,' I objected.

'Yes, you are,' Mr Larson stared at me and secretly itched his own palm.

Some kids giggled. I kept searching for the elastic band under my blazer.

'Tell me the truth, Moysten! What is stinging you?' Mr Larson barked.

'Nothing,' I had to stop searching.

'Don't itch then,' the teacher demanded.

'Don't try,' I heard Jannie's whisper from the first desk. 'Quistok says there's no this poem in the cheat sheet.'

My heart nearly stopped beating. I didn't remember this poem at all! I glanced hopefully at Nick. He started quickly leafing through the book. Brent Howe probably decided to distract Mr Larson to give Nick the opportunity to help me. He started itching all over.

'Howe,' the teacher stared at him. 'Now you're itching.'

'Don't worry, Mr Larson,' Brent answered, scratching his head with his hand. 'My father came from Africa yesterday and obviously brought bugs from there. We can't get rid of them.'

Mr Larson started, went pale and stepped as far as possible from Brent. 'I hope these bugs aren't catching?' he enquired carefully.

'We don't know yet. Doctors aren't so sure yet,' Brent replied cheerfully. 'They examine dad now, but these bugs are sly. They sit somewhere under the skin and doctors can't find them.' Howe itched his side, smiling all over his face. Most of kids had their heads down and shook with silent laughter.

While Brent distracted Mr Larson, Nick, who sat at the first desk in front of me, quickly whispered,

"I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,"'

But because of muffled giggles around me, I couldn't hear him properly. All what I heard was:

'I went out in the hazel hood,

Because a vampire was in my shed,"

What vampire? What shed? I thought in horror. I glanced at Mr Larson. He was still busy with Brent and his tropic bugs. 'Next,' I whispered to Nick.

'And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread,' he whispered back.

Because of loudly giggled kids in the class, I heard:

'And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked Mary to a thread.'

I felt me going crazy when I imagined that someone picked up a wand and did something with poor Mary. I glanced at Quistok in panic. He shrugged, then raised his hands to his head and shook with them. Then he showed that someone was going hastily and finally made a gesture as if he cut a stick, then he put his fingers together and moved with them.

I started to analyze video and audio variants. Nick said that someone was going and Quistok showed the same. A vampire also was in both variants. Nick said "a vampire" and Quistok, shaking his hands above his head, probably meant an angry vampire or something. I didn't remember any vampire in Yeats's poem, though. But probably it was there, I thought. Then someone cut a wand, I went on thinking. But what did Quistok mean, showing something with his fingers. Oh, I know! Nick said that someone had killed Mary with a wand. Probably Quistok meant that at that time this Mary was knitting.

Rubbish! I thought, shaking my head.

Maybe if my destiny had given me five more minutes Nick would have told me more, but unfortunately Mr Larson too quickly dealt with Howe and his bugs and turned to me.

'So, Moysten, I want to hear "The Song of Wandering Aengus" at last,' he demanded.

'"The Song of Wandering Aengus",' I announced and fell silent.

'Don't worry, Moysten,' the teacher encouraged me. 'Begin.'

I glanced desperately at him and reluctantly said,

'I went out in the hazel hood,

Because a vampire was in my shed.'

There was a complete silence in the class. Some kids probably decided that "The song…" began just like that. Other part of kids opened their mouths in horror and stared at me. Quistok clutched his head in both hands, made a face and showed again that someone was going hastily and shook his hands above his head.

As for Mr Larson, he was shocked speechless. But by the colour of his face you could easily say that some processes were going in his head. At first his face went bright red, then it acquired a threatening violet tone. Finally he pressed his lips together so tightly that they turned into a line and pronounced only one word, 'Next.'

By that time I had completely fallen into a stupor. All what I managed to do was glance desperately at Nick. But it didn't help. Because Nick bent his head down and shook with silent laughter.

I just wanted to hit him. Resisting the urge I darted my eyes to Liz. But she was too far from me and just spread her hands helplessly.

Richelle stared at me as if I was mad and didn't even try to help me. I glanced at Qistok. He was my last hope. And he didn't let me down. He made a gesture as if he'd cut a stick, picked up something and put in on the stick. Then he tapped his head and spread his hands out.

Okay, someone put something on the stick, I summarized the information. But why did he tap his head? Maybe he meant that someone hit Mary on the head. But could have poets written such an awful thing in 19 century? I thought doubtfully.

'Next,' Mr Larson repeated a little bit louder.

I sighed and reluctantly said,

'And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked Mary to a thread.'

'What vampire? What Mary?' Mr Larson roared.

'Mary. Who was knitting,' I faltered.

By this time all kids were laughing hysterically. Mr Larson's yelling drowned in their laughter. I was the only one, who could hear him properly. Although I was the one Mr Larson addressed to. He shouted that no one had insulted him so much during his long pedagogical practice.

'Mr Larson,' I pleaded, 'I've learnt the poems! Honestly! Just ask me another one!'

The teacher seemed to think. Probably he didn't feel like devoting one more lesson to me. That was why he sighed and nodded. 'Okay, Moysten,' he said. 'Tell me "Dreamland" by Edgar Allan Poe.'

On hearing this, Quistok nodded vigorously. Obviously it meant that this poem was in the cheat sheet. I shoved my hand under my blazer, trying to find the elastic band, but while I was wrestled with "The Song of Wandering Aengus", all elastic bands disappeared. Bending like an interrogation sign, I started to rummage under my blazer.

'You're itching again,' Mr Larson said crossly.

At that time I finally found one of the elastic bands. I pulled it and the cheat sheet drove onto my palm. I glanced secretly at it, but there was another poem.

'Moysten, are you going to say something,' Mr Larson urged me.

'I know, I know,' I mumbled, rummaging under my blazer. 'Hold on a minute, please. Just one more minute.'

Where is this damned winding? I thought in a panic.

'Stop itching, Moysten,' Mr Larson yelled. 'Howe, your bugs seem to be catching.'

'They aren't mine, they are father's,' Brent started to argue immediately.

'Whatever,' Mr Larson itched his own palm again. 'You should be in the hospital, not here.'

Finally I found the elastic band of winding and pulled it. Something started to roll on my arm. Then there was a crack. The teacher glanced at me suspiciously and came over to me.

'Just one more second, Mr Larson,' I kept telling desperately.

'What's up with your arm?' the teacher came up to me.

By this time I'd completely lost my head. I didn't know what to do to save myself. Not realizing what I was doing, I stretched out my arm to the teacher, pulling all elastic bands simultaneously. There was a loud crack and one of the rollers shot right into Mr Larson's forehead.

'Bandit! Killer!' his voice raised to sort of squeal.

'I'm sorry! I'm so sorry,' I mumbled. 'I didn't mean…'

Mr Larson gave me a long lecture about nasty modern students. Kids in the classroom were already lying on their desks, screaming with laughter.

I'd been staring at red Mr Larson for about a minute, but then as if something had clicked in my head and to my great astonishment I declaimed:

'I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread.'

'Stop that!' Mr Larson barked. 'I thought that you, Moysten, just haven't learnt the poems. But now I see that you're sneering at the poetry!'

'I'm not sneering,' I tried to apologize. 'It's something wrong with my memory.'

'With your memory?' Mr Larson hissed. 'Okay, I'll help to improve your memory then. Now you have to learn not ten, but fifteen poems.'

He quickly added five more long poems into my list of poems and strode out of the class.

Everyone froze. They all were staring at me. I shook the remains of Quistok's invention out of my sleeve, looking blankly at my feet.

'Wow,' Brent was the first to speak. 'You hit the bull's eye, Tom.'

I glanced furiously at Zane and told him everything what I thought about his stupid cheat sheet.

'I tried to help you,' he obviously took a great offence. 'I wrote these damned poems for you! I tried to gesture the poems for you! Don't blame me if you don't understand sign language.'

'Sign language?' I yelled. 'Explain then, what did you mean shaking your hands above your head?'

'What's difficult in it?' Quistok shrugged. 'I meant the fire in the head. I showed how it flamed. I think it's easy to guess.'

'You know, Moysten, you could just have learnt these poems yourself,' Nick sneered. 'So don't blame us.'

'I have learnt,' I snapped. 'And what about you? How could you? I needed your help! But you just laughed instead of helping.'

'I couldn't help myself,' Nick raised one eyebrow. 'If someone said that W.B. Yeats had described vampires in his poem, you would also laugh, wouldn't you?'

I didn't feel like arguing with him at that moment. I just waved my hand and wandered over to my desk beside myself with grief.

At the recess I was called to the principal's office. Mr Larson accused me of trying to kill him, because I hadn't done my home task. I tried to explain the situation, but I don't think they believed in what I had said. That meant more problems with Brian. As soon as I was free to go, I found the gang and rudely told Nick everything about his so-called help. He just raised one eyebrow and gave me one of his most superior smiles. He said that he had tried to help me and it was only my fault that I hadn't heard him properly. After that he put his arms around Richelle's waist and dragged her down the hallway.

'How could you, Tom?' Liz shook her head sympathetically.

I just waved my hand and went to the next lesson.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Tom the clown again**

After classes we gathered near the school gate and went to "Craigend".

'Oh, hello!' Matron exclaimed when we squeezed through the door into her office. 'I'm glad that you've come. We have no time to waste. The relatives are arriving the day after tomorrow. They called today in the morning.'

We started to work briskly. First we put the wood boards of broken shelf stand in the corner of the room and then continued to sort out the things. Liz, Elmo, Sunny and I sorted the things, Nick and Richelle wrote down names, condition and number of things into the account books.

Soon we found out that most of things there were small statuettes, old magazines and newspapers, and old account books of the Craigend family. Using them we could trace annual incomes and expenditures of the Craigend family. But we didn't find anything what could explain the terrible mystery, young Ruby Craigend had mentioned in her diary. We looked through every single folder and thumbed through every single book, and didn't find anything, but dust and dirt.

One of the folders was full of letters, which gave us hope. But even there we didn't find any mention of Ruby's mystery.

'Oh,' finally I stood up, stretching my back. 'I'm sick of it.'

'Could Miss Craigend have stopped writing the diary?' Liz sighed.

'Other parts of her diary could be lost or she destroyed them or something,' Elmo shrugged.

'Hey! There are a few books over there,' Nick looked at the corner of the room.

'So what?' I replied indifferently. 'We're looking for the diary, not for the book.

Without saying a word, Nick wandered towards the pile of books, which were lying in the corner of the room.

'I've already looked through those books, Nick,' Sunny called out him. 'There are only geographical atlases. Nothing interesting for us.'

Nick grabbed one of the books and started leafing through it as if he hadn't heard Sunny.

'Kontellis, you're impossible, do you know that?' I couldn't help saying. 'Sunny's just told you, there's nothing interesting.'

Nick didn't even bother to answer. Silently he put the book aside, took another one and started turning the pages. Suddenly he looked up at us. 'Nothing interesting? Take a look,' he said smugly.

I glanced at the cover of the book. 'Ah,' I waved my hand, 'it's just a book about noble people of the country, issued in 1950 or so.'

'There's must be something about the Craigend family,' Nick mumbled thoughtfully, leafing through the book. 'It was a quite rich family in those days. Yes, look here,' he yelled and came up to us. We all crowded around him to see. He was right. There was an article about the Craigend family and their mansion. I looked at the black-and-white picture. There was a huge mansion, which now we know as "Craigend", surrounded by the beautiful garden.

'How beautiful!' Liz whispered admiringly. 'I wish I could live there!'

Nick wasn't going to give Liz the opportunity to rave about the wonderful house and quickly turned the page. He ran his eyes over the article and turned another page. What we saw there made all of us jump excitedly. There was a plan of the mansion and its surroundings.

'It looks exactly like the plan from the diary,' I whispered.

'Yeah,' Elmo nodded. 'But this one is much newer. Look at the date.'

The caption bellow the plan read: "October, 1949".

We all stared at the plan, trying to understand if there was a difference between the old plan from the diary and the new plan from this book. But right at that time Matron came into the room. Nick slammed the book shut instantly.

'I'm so sorry,' she said. 'I have to go now. One of the residents had a heart attack and was sent to the hospital. I have to go there. But I can't leave this room opened. Please, don't think that I don't trust you, but…'

'Oh, never mind, Matron,' Liz exclaimed. 'We understand. We'll come here tomorrow after school.'

Matron gave her a grateful glance and smiled. Nick reluctantly shoved the book back into the pile, and saying goodbye to Matron, we left "Craigend".

'I wish we'd taken this book along,' Nick muttered.

'Don't fuss,' Elmo held up his hand. 'We'll take it tomorrow. What can happen with the book in the locked room?'

After that we split up and went our separate ways. Everyone had things to do that evening.

###

Next morning I met Liz, Sunny and Elmo on my way to school.

'Matron have called me today and said that someone had broken into the storeroom,' Liz said to me as soon as I came up to them.

'What?' I exploded.

'She said that they didn't know what had been stolen yet,' Liz went on. 'But she was very upset. The relatives are arriving tomorrow morning and I promised that we'd sort out things and clean the room today. Tom, are you with us?'

'Sure,' I nodded.

'Thank you,' Liz smiled with relief. 'Sunny and Elmo agreed too. I hope that Nick and Richelle won't refuse to help us either. I don't know how we'll be able to do it all with just the four of us.

Coming up to the school gate we saw Nick, Richelle and Mary Horsety. Nick stood leaning against the tree and hugging Richelle. Horsety sat on the front wheel of an asphalt compactor, which was left there by the workers, and smoked. They chattered, laughing from time to time. The three of them deserve each other, I couldn't help thinking.

'Hi!' Horse waved to us. We came up to them.

A big, black jeep drove past us and stopped near the school gate. Brent Howe and a man in a black suit got out.

'What a face!' Elmo glanced at the man and shuddered.

'It's a new guard of Brent's father,' Horse explained. 'Sometimes he drives Brent to school.'

The man was huge. His face was like a big, round flapjack; there were two deep scars running down his cheek and forehead. It crossed my mind that his face looked as if someone scratched a flapjack with a fork, but in the end decided not to eat it.

'Cute guy,' I stared at him in fascination.

The guard probably felt that we discussed him and gave us a dirty look. I looked away instantly. The guy didn't seem friendly. I wouldn't want to meet him on my own. You should think twice before make angry such a guy.

'Hi,' Brent came up to us. 'Don't be afraid, he won't hurt you until I give the order,' he laughed, glancing at my face. 'It's father's best guard. Omar Killthewolf.'

'Maybe he killed the wolf,' Nick jeered. 'But looking at his face you can say that that wolf was struggling for dear life.'

'There's nothing to laugh at,' Brent objected. 'A killer cut his face with a knife while Omar was protecting his previous boss.'

'Did the boss survive?' Liz enquired.

'Yeah,' Brent nodded. 'But all the same, he was shot a month later. After that Omar protected another businessman, but he also was killed. Then Omar started to work with my father.'

'He's got a good experience,' Sunny snorted. 'That's impressive.'

Brent shrugged and ran towards the school building.

'I'll ask Brent to take a picture of me with this guy,' Horse said dreamily. 'I like to have my photo taken with weird people.'

'You can have your photo taken with Tom,' Nick drawled, looking at me sideways. 'But you're right, Mary,' he added grinning, 'every modern girl should have a photo of such guy in her shoulder bag.'

'Why?' Liz smiled.

'Because if someone hits on you, it'll be enough to show him this photo and say that it's your boyfriend,' Nick grinned. 'It'll work better than a gun, I suppose.'

Horsety snorted and lit another cigarette. She took a long drag and slowly let it out.

'Stop smoking,' Elmo coughed. 'It's not cool.'

'Shut up, little thing,' Horse didn't even bother to glance at him.

Elmo's face went bright pink, but he didn't say anything. He knew that it was dangerous to deal with Horse.

'Smoke the other way, will you?' I supported Elmo.

'Oh, we're so delicate,' Horse laughed loudly.

'I'm out of here,' Elmo tugged at my arm. 'Come on. Let them do what they want to do. Don't humiliate yourself. Be a man.'

'Oh yeah, two men,' Horse snorted disdainfully. 'A little geek and a buffoon.'

'Bitch,' Elmo mumbled very quietly, but didn't say it aloud.

But I couldn't just go away. I was sick of her. I didn't like being humiliated, especially with all my friends looking on. I wanted to show everyone, especially Nick and Richelle, that I'm not so stupid and hopeless as they thought. Accidently I glanced at the asphalt compactor and a crazy idea came into my mind.

'Step aside, guys,' I said, trying to look as indifferent as I could. 'I want to take a ride in this compactor.'

'Are you crazy?' Liz tried to reason with me.

'Don't worry,' I shrugged. 'I can drive. I'll just ride up the street, then return and park this thing on the place where it stands now. That's all. No one will notice.'

'Oh, sure,' Nick sneered. 'You haven't got the guts.'

That was the last straw. At first I wasn't sure that it was a good idea, but after these words I made up my mind. 'I'll go,' I said in a hoarse voice.

'Go, go,' Horse didn't even bother to stand up from the wheel. I climbed on the compactor and looked for the key. It was hidden under the seat. How stupid.

I jammed the key into the compactor's ignition and turned it. The engine roared. I pushed the accelerator pedal and the asphalt compactor started moving.

'Idiot!' Horse managed to jump off the wheel. The others just watched how I moved slowly up the street, with their jaws dropped.

'Stop!' Elmo recovered first. 'Hey Tom! Stop!' He, Liz and Sunny raced after me.

'Tom, stop!' they shouted as they ran.

I'd like to stop the compactor, but I was so scary that I'd forgotten anything and didn't know what to do. In a panic, I started to push every button. Sunny caught up with me and was about to jump on the step of the compactor, when I accidently pushed the accelerator pedal, instead of brake pedal. The compactor roared and speeded up.

'Help!' I yelled. 'I can't stop it!'

They ran after me again.

'Faster!' I shouted to them.

'Look at the road!' Elmo shouted back.

'It's useless,' I roared through the rumble of the asphalt compactor. 'I can't control this thing!'

'Switch it off,' Liz panted.

'I don't know how,' I yelled. I was gripping the wheel so tightly that my hands were aching. I just prayed that no one started to cross the road.

Finally Sunny managed to catch up with me, jumped on the step and climbed up on the seat beside me. She grabbed the key and tried to turn it, but the key didn't move. 'How to stop this thing?' she yelled to me.

'I don't know,' I grabbed a long lever and pulled it. The compactor moved faster than ever. I could already see the big house in the end of the street. Sunny seized the lever and pushed it. The compactor stopped abruptly.

'Let's go,' Sunny pulled at my arm and jumped down to the ground.

'Maybe we should drive it back where it stood before?' I hesitated.

'Switch off the engine!' Sunny roared. 'And climb down.'

'All right, all right,' I obediently jumped down from the compactor and that was when I remembered that I'd forgotten to stop the engine. Right at that moment the compactor slowly started to move backward by itself.

'Catch it!' I roared. Liz and Elmo sprang aside from the uncontrolled machine. The asphalt compactor swerving from side to side, rumbled past them and down the street. We tried to overtake it, but it seemed as if the compactor was possessed by the devil. Dodging us, it kept retreating towards Craigend Road.

'Hurry up!' I panted. 'We must catch it before it reaches Craigend Road.'

The compactor, meanwhile, had already reached the school. Right at that moment a green Nissan turned up on the street. It was Mr Larson's Nissan. He slowly drove along the street and was about to turn onto the school parking lot, when he noticed the asphalt compactor, moving directly at him.

The teacher hung out of the window and gaped at the compactor. 'Stop!' he yelled.

The compactor didn't obey.

'Hey, where's the driver?' Mr Larson yelled.

There was no one who could answer his question. The asphalt compactor, swerving a little, rumbled straight towards Mr Larson and seemed to have a serious intention to dispose of both Mr Larson and his Nissan.

'Help!' Mr Larson shouted and went into reverse.

The artful compactor, swerving from side to side, went on following Mr Larson. It seemed to me that it even started moving faster than ever. Mr Larson hadn't enough time to turn around, so he kept backing down the street. Luckily for him there were no cars on the street at this time of day.

'The compactor will squash Mr Larson and his car into a pulp if it catches up with them,' I panted as we ran.

'Don't talk, Tom,' Sunny wheezed. Now only she and I were running after the compactor. Liz and Elmo had already stopped, exhausted. Though, I felt that my strength was running out too. I've never been the best marathon runner.

'Larson is dead,' I croaked, stopping and grabbing my violently beating heart. 'Well, at least his Nissan is certainly dead,' I added sadly, watching Sunny, who still tried to catch up with the furious compactor.

At that moment a familiar slender figure ran past me.

'Mr Craven!' I yelled. 'The compactor is over there! Hurry up!'

'I see,' I heard in reply.

Later on, Mr Craven said that if he hadn't come into the school yard and Horsety, Brinkley and Kontellis hadn't said that "idiot Moysten" had done something with the asphalt compactor, which started to drive by itself, the catastrophe would have happened. But luckily no one was hurt; we got off with only a scare. Mr Craven jumped on the compactor right at that moment when it almost caught up with Mr Larson's Nissan. Mr Larson scrambled out of the car, and shaking Mr Craven's hand, said that the school needs young teachers.

After that Mr Craven drove the compactor at the same place where it was left by workers.

'This is a real man,' Horsety exclaimed, looking at Mr Craven with admiration. Then she glanced at me. 'You're stupid clown! Keep away from me,' she added disdainfully.

I didn't even try to object. Nick grinned scornfully. But Liz, Elmo, and Sunny also were looking at me disapprovingly. I opened my mouth to say that I didn't mean it to happen this way, but the secretary of the principal ran up to me and ordered to follow her.

I sighed heavily and wandered towards the main building. Mr Craven and the others followed us. In the school, Mr Craven stopped me. 'The compactor started to move without your interference. Okay?' he whispered to us. 'I'll deal with Tom on my own. There's no need to report to the principal about it.'

Liz, Elmo and Sunny nodded. Richelle just shrugged, examining her fingernails. After a moment, Nick nodded too. So, due to Mr Craven I didn't end up in the principal's office, explaining why the asphalt compactor nearly killed Mr Larson. Honestly I was afraid even to imagine what Brian would say if he knew the truth.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Ruby's relatives**

The rest of the day in school was quiet. After lessons we met in the school yard and went straight to "Craigend".

Matron was in her office. She looked tired and upset.

'Is everything so wrong?' Liz exclaimed sympathetically.

'Yeah,' Matron sighed. 'Someone broke into "Craigend" last night. Luckily the residents are okay. They don't even know about it. The thief rummaged only in the storeroom, where you'd worked, so I decided not to tell them.'

We glanced at each other. Matron led the way into the storeroom. The door was locked, as usual.

'They got in through the window, that you'd broken,' Matron explained. 'And it's weird, but they didn't even try to unlock the door to steal something from "Craigend".

'Oh, I'm so sorry!' Liz exclaimed. 'It's our fault. We shouldn't have opened that window.'

'No, Liz dear,' Matron objected. 'It isn't your fault. No one blames you.'

'I wonder why anyone would want to break into a storeroom,' Richelle said, puzzled.

'I don't know,' Matron sighed. 'I don't think there were expensive things to steal.'

'There were,' Elmo objected. 'For example, the rare old books of the Craigend family are priceless. A collector of books could give a fortune for them.'

Matron shrugged and unlocked the door. We all came into the room. There was an incredible mess. We looked around in horror. It was difficult to believe that someone could turn the whole room upside down just in one night. Everything from the shelves and drawers was lying on the floor, shuffled.

'Yeah,' I drawled. 'It's impossible to find anything in this mess now.'

We shuffled our feet, not knowing what to do. Papers, documents, books, folders weren't just lying everywhere, it looked as if the robbers shuffled them on purpose.

'What did they steal?' Liz broke the silence finally.

'I can't say for sure yet,' Matron answered. 'It's difficult to notice what they stole in such a mess. I thought you would help us to find what had been stolen, using your account books.'

'It looks like they looked for something,' Nick said suddenly, thoughtfully looking around the room.

'You're right,' Elmo nodded. 'It looks as if the robbers took a book, leafed through it and threw it on the floor. Then they did the same with the next book.'

'Okay,' Matron sighed. 'I'll leave you alone. I have a lot of things to do. The relatives of the Craigend family are arriving tomorrow.'

'Sure, you can go,' Nick nodded impatiently. He was desperate to get rid of Matron and read the article in the book that we'd found the day before.

'If anybody wants me, I'll be in my office,' Matron said and went out of the storeroom.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, Nick rushed towards the pile of books where we'd left the book with the plan, and started to rummage in the books and magazines.

'No,' finally he said, disappointed. 'The book isn't here.'

'There's no need to worry,' Liz objected. 'We'll find it. The book must be lying somewhere in this mess. I don't think the robbers stole this book. Who could want an old, boring book about rich people?'

'Besides, this book wasn't rare,' Elmo added. 'I'm sure you can find it in every library.'

'A lot of people could want this book,' Nick muttered. '_I_ want this book. I told you, we should have taken it away yesterday.'

'Stop grumbling!' I yelled at him. He glared at me and opened his mouth to say something, but Sunny quickly interfered.

'Stop arguing, you both. We have no time for it,' she said firmly. 'Now. Tom, Liz, Elmo and I will name everything what is lying on the floor. Nick and Richelle will find things in their lists of things and mark. Let's go.'

She took a deep breath, sat down on the floor, grabbed a folder and started to enumerate everything what was in it. We did the same. We took things from the floor, named them and orderly stacked them up. Nick and Richelle looked up everything what we dictated in their lists, and marked them as "found".

We'd been working for about two hours, but the book with the plan hadn't been found yet.

'I told you, we should have taken it yesterday,' Nick began to grumble again.

'Don't make a fuss, we'll find it,' Elmo replied, taking papers from a folder and looking through them. 'Look, Nick,' he started to dictate. 'There is a sheaf of complaints against Mr Craigend from a neighbor.'

'Oh! I read these complaints yesterday!' Liz exclaimed. 'Probably this neighbor was a quarrelsome man. He wrote such awful things about Mr Craigend.'

'Okay, okay,' Elmo took another folder.

In an hour everything in Nick and Richelle's lists was marked as "found". We found everything, except the book with the plan. We stared at each other.

'Let's look through the books again,' Liz suggested doubtfully.

'What for?' I shrugged. 'We've already looked through every single book, every single folder.'

But all the same we quickly looked through the books, we'd just sorted out.

'The book disappeared,' Elmo said, puzzled. 'Everything else is here. Could the thieves have broken into the storeroom for only _this_ book?'

'It's quite weird of them, don't you think?' Richelle sighed, putting her lists aside. 'You said that this book wasn't rare or valuable. Just an old, dusty book about noble people.'

'She's right,' Liz nodded. 'I leafed through this book yesterday. There was nothing interesting except the plan. Just old pictures of famous mansions and their owners.'

'The plan!' Nick opened his eyes wide. 'What if it was the plan what the robbers was looking for.'

'The plan?' I sneered. 'I wonder who could know that there was a plan of Raven Hill and "Craigend" in that book. And who could know that there was something important on this plan? Even Matron knows nothing about it. Let alone other people.'

'_We_ know about it,' Nick objected. 'And anyone else could know.'

We fell in silence. Could the plan be connecting with Ruby's mystery? Why not? I had to agree with Nick. Someone could know about the plan in the book. But who?

'It could be one of the residents,' I suggested. 'They could know. Especially if they've been living here for a long time.'

'Why didn't they steal the book earlier, then? Why wait so long?' Elmo shook his head.

'Besides, resident could have taken the book without attracting attention,' Nick supported him. 'If someone volunteered to sort out old books here, Matron wouldn't mind.'

At that time the door opened and Matron came in.

'How is it going?' she enquired.

We told her about the missing book. She didn't seem very upset. 'One missing book is all right,' she said, looking around the room with satisfaction. 'I'm so grateful to you! You've done a terrific job! You can go now,' she said. 'The carpenter will repair the shelf stand on his own.'

'If you want so,' Nick grinned happily.

'Now let's go to my office and I'll give you your money,' Matron said.

'No,' Liz, Elmo and Sunny protested. 'You have so many problems. We can't accept this money.'

Nick and Richelle gloomily stared at them.

'No, I want you to accept it,' Matron insisted. 'You deserve it. You've done so much work.'

We followed her into her office and she handed an envelope with money to Liz. At that moment we heard the sound of arriving car and voices. Matron looked through the window and frowned.

'Wait here,' she said to us and went out of the office.

'Listen, I hope you're not going to look for this stupid book?' Richelle stared at us expectantly.

'There's nothing to look for,' Liz sighed. 'Obviously the thieves stole the book. I don't think we'll see it again.'

'But Ruby wrote about a mystery,' Elmo didn't agree with her. 'And we have the first plan from the diary. We just must think where to find the answer.'

'Yeah,' Nick drawled. 'I wish Ruby described the mystery instead of her stupid love.'

'Her love wasn't stupid at all!' Liz exclaimed indignantly. 'Ruby described her feelings so poetically.'

'Okay, poetically,' Nick agreed. 'But all the same, the mystery is much more interesting.'

'You're so cold-hearted,' Liz looked at him pityingly.

'I'm not cold-hearted, I'm businesslike,' Nick objected. 'Look. An old plan of "Craigend" and Raven Hill flew out of Ruby's diary. Then we found the same plan in a book about noble families. Then someone broke into "Craigend" and stole exactly this book and nothing else. Why? What for?'

'But they stole the book!' I exclaimed. 'It means that they needed it.'

'Yeah,' Nick snorted. 'That's all what we know.'

We heard voices in the hall. Matron put her head around the door and beckoned to us. We followed her. In the huge hall room we saw Mrs Drisk-Haskell, elegant and good-dressed as usual; a swarthy, big-boned woman in her fifties and a very fat man with a bushy mustache and ginger, frizzy hair around the shiny bald spot on the top of his head. They sat in soft armchairs and chattered.

'This is the relatives of the Craigend family,' Matron whispered to us. 'They arrived earlier than we expected. This woman is Ruby's cousin. The man is her husband.'

We nodded.

'This is my young friends,' Matron said out loud. 'They often help me with "Craigend".'

'It's very nice of them,' the woman said in such a deep and hoarse bass voice.

'It's quite difficult to meet kind and unselfish young people nowadays,' the man added in a thin shrill voice

I tried hard not to break into laughter when this huge, fat man started to speak in a voice of a little girl. Liz and Elmo politely covered their mouths with their hands. Sunny did worse. She snorted and clutched at my hand, trying to stifle the urge to laugh. Nick and Richelle managed to stay calm, smiling politely.

Matron introduced us to them. Then she stretched out her hand to the swarthy woman and said, 'This is Amelia Turner, Ruby Craigend's cousin, and her husband William.'

The woman and the man nodded at us indulgently.

'I thought you're also Craigend,' Liz said, surprised.

'Craigend is my maiden name. Now I'm Turner,' the woman replied, looking at Liz pityingly, as if she wondered how someone couldn't understand such an elementary thing.

'I see,' Liz seemed to be satisfied with her answer.

'Are you descendants of noble families, too?' Mr Turner squeaked.

'Alas, Mr Turner,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell shook her head. 'They're just teenagers from plain families. Some of them are even children of immigrants.'

'Ohh,' Mr Turner looked at us pityingly.

'I'm glad to visit this place,' Mrs Turner barked. 'I was born here and spent my childhood in this mansion. It was a wonderful place at those days. My grandfather owned a lot of lands here in Raven Hill.'

'But we don't have anything now,' suddenly Mr Turner took a great offence. 'All what we had is in other people's hands now. The mansion, the land and everything else.'

'Oh, you're absolutely right!' Mrs Drisk-Haskell exclaimed with sincere remorse. 'Your mansion is occupied with old people. Our houses are on your land. Oh, it's so awful to know that we're all invaders!'

'That's it, Mrs Drisk-Haskell,' Mr Turner nodded tactlessly. 'The most part of this suburb belonged to my dear wife and her family and everyone who lives in these houses, is an invader.'

'I'm not an invader,' I put in indignantly. 'We didn't seize these lands! We just live here.'

Nick dug me in the ribs, but it was too late. Mr Turner's bold head went bright red.

'If I were you, young man, I'd be quiet!' he yelled, panting. Then he broke off and started feeling his pulse. 'My blood pressure is very high,' he glanced at his wife fearfully.

'That's because of the heat,' she replied. 'Let's go out into the garden.'

'Oh sure, you'll feel better outside,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell nodded. 'I guess you're glad to visit the place where you ran and played when you were a little girl. You used to play with Ruby in the Glen and in the garden, I suppose.'

Mr and Mrs Turner pressed their lips together and exchanged glances.

'Ruby was much older than I, so I didn't play with her,' the woman said coldly. 'But of course I'm glad to be here,' she added coldly.

'Let's go to the garden,' Matron suggested, noticing that tension was growing. 'The table is set for tea in the Gazebo.'

They stood up and went over to the door.

'Let's go out of here,' Nick whispered. 'I don't want to have tea with them.'

'Neither do I,' I agreed.

'But we can't just go away without saying goodbye,' Liz protested. 'It's impolite.'

We went out into the garden and headed for the gazebo in order to say goodbye, when Mrs Drisk-Haskell stopped us.

'I want to ask you,' she looked at us. 'I want to present a bunch of lilacs to Mrs Turner. Cut a few lilacs branches, please,' she pointed at lilac bushes near the back part of "Craigend".

This part of garden belonged to the Glen, that's why the grass there wasn't mowed and bushes weren't cut. So it was quite difficult to reach the lilac bushes. We came up to the wall of bushes and stopped.

'So?' Mrs Drisk-Haskell stared at us expectantly.

'I won't go there,' Nick muttered sharply.

Drisk-Haskell glanced at him with disgust, but didn't say anything. Richelle didn't go there either, of course. Liz, Elmo, Sunny and I glanced at each other and started to make our way through knee-deep grass and thick bushes.

'Stupid Turners,' I muttered, cutting a branch with flowers. 'I feel insects falling down on me.'

'Shh,' Sunny shushed.

'No, no! Not these flowers,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell shouted. 'I want you to cut those flowers,' she pointed at another bush. 'Those white ones.'

On the way to the white lilac bushes we came across a wall of thorn bushes.

'Damn!' I cried when its big thorns scratched my arm.

'Be careful,' Elmo warned me. The next moment he screamed with pain and grabbed his leg. 'My foot,' he groaned.

As it turned out he trod on a stick with long thorns, which pierced through the sole of his sneaker and jabbed into Elmo's foot.

Finally we reached the clump of white lilacs.

'Cut only beautiful and lush flowers,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell kept commanding.

'I can't believe that we're doing this for the sake of these rude, superior Turners,' I went on grumbling.

'I can't believe that Ruby Craigend could have such a rude, superior cousin,' Liz whispered.

Ruby Craigend was an elegant and refined woman. We didn't know her, but we heard much about her from Matron and Miss Plummer. And it was difficult to believe that delicate Ruby could have such a rude and ill-bred sister.

'Hurry up!' we heard Mrs Drisk-Haskell's cross voice.

'She seems to think that we're her slaves,' Sunny said very quietly.

Finally we cut a few branches of white lilac flowers and crept out of bushes. While we brushed ourselves off and pulled leaves and twigs out of our hair, Mrs Drisk-Haskell grabbed the flowers from Liz's hands and handed them to Mrs Turner.

'Very beautiful flowers. Thank you,' she nodded indulgently to Mrs Drisk-Haskell. Then without saying a word to us, she pulled out a cigarette, lit it and rakishly blew a puff of smoke out of the corner of her mouth. 'Come on,' she turned to Matron. 'I'd like to drink a cup of tea.'

We quickly said goodbye and strode out of the garden, before they invited us to join them.

'Cool relatives,' Nick laughed when we went quite far from "Craigend". 'I nearly burst into laughter when this huge fatty started to speak in such a thin voice.

'I felt worse,' Richelle complained. 'I tried my best to keep myself quiet, but she,' Richelle dug Sunny in the ribs, 'bent down her head and snorted.'

'I couldn't help myself,' Sunny snorted.

'I pinched my arm, trying not to laugh,' Liz giggled. 'Especially when Tom said that he wasn't an invader.'

'Hey,' suddenly Nick stopped smiling. 'Mrs Turner said that she grew up here. What if she knows about Ruby's mystery? Ruby could have told her about the mystery.

'Even if she knows, they won't tell you,' Sunny grinned. 'They both don't think much of us.'

'Yeah,' Elmo frowned. 'They think that we're not worthy of them.'

'All the same, we can try to find out if they know the mystery,' Nick insisted. 'I'm dying to know what a terrible events could happen here.'

'Me too,' Elmo nodded. 'That's why I suggest that we should visit them again tomorrow.'

'What for?' Liz looked at him doubtfully. 'I don't think Mrs Turner will tell us about her childhood here and about Ruby's mysteries. Besides we don't even know if they know the mystery.'

'Well we can try, can't we?' Elmo said. 'We should unostentatiously ask her to tell us about the mansion and Ruby, and to elicit as much information as possible. I think Nick will be able to cope with it. He can charm people and make them speak.'

'Yeah, he can,' all of a sudden Richelle filled with pride. 'He can brainwash anyone if he wants to. Sometimes it's difficult even to remember what you were talking in the beginning of conversation.'

'Oh, thanks a lot, Rich,' Nick grinned.

'Take it as a compliment,' Liz smiled.

'I've got another idea,' I put in. 'Ruby Craigend was a friend of your grandfather's, Elmo. Right? And she wrote in her diary that she was going to tell her friends about the mystery. So your granddad knew about it for sure. He could have written something about it in his letters, or in the first newspapers or somewhere else.'

'Right!' Elmo beamed. 'Why didn't I think of that? You're right, Tom. Let's go to the Pen office.'

We spent two hours in the library in the back of the Pen building, rummaging in old letters, documents, the first issues of the Pen, but didn't find anything connected with the terrible mystery, Miss Craigend had mentioned in her diary.

'I'm out of here,' Nick said finally, standing up and stretching his back. 'There's nothing about the mystery here. Even if your grandpa knew about it, Elmo, he didn't leave anything here.'

'Well it's all right for me,' Richelle said.

'Probably they're right,' Liz admitted reluctantly. 'We'll never know about this mystery. So we'd better think about our exams. The school year is finishing soon.'

'You go. I'll stay here for a while and look through the folders in dad's office,' Elmo said.

The others shrugged and went home. I stayed with Elmo. Firstly I wanted to help him. And secondly Brian was at home that evening and I'd rather rummage in old documents than spend time in his company.

We looked through every single folder with documents in Zim's office, but didn't find anything.

'Nothing,' Elmo sighed, closing the last folder and putting in on the shelf. 'Nick was right. Granddad didn't write about it.'

He thought for a while, nibbling his bottom lip. Then he grabbed his bag and pulled out the plan, we'd found in Ruby's diary. He flattened it out on the table and we both stared at it. There were a lot of little crosses and pictures all over the plan. Pictures meant places, it was obvious. But what did crosses mean?

'Look,' Elmo said and pointed at centre of the plan. 'This is "Craigend". This cross probably means the front entrance. And that one means the back door.

'Yeah,' I mumbled. 'And this is a fountain near the front door and there is a cross on it. But now there's no any fountain near "Craigend".

Elmo nodded impatiently. He didn't need my help. 'Probably it was removed,' he said. 'And even if there was a door inside the fountain, we wouldn't be able to find it now. But look here, there's one cross inside "Craigend". But now it's difficult to understand where exactly. The inside of the house had been changed a lot.'

'There are two crosses quite far from "Craigend",' I said. 'Do you think it could be entrances into the tunnels?'

'Maybe,' Elmo nodded. 'Oh, I wish we had the newer plan from the stolen book,' he struck his hand against his knee. Probably we could learn more if we compared them.'

'Let's go home,' I yawned. 'It's late.'

Elmo nodded and stood up. We went outside and slowly wandered along the street, discussing the plan and the mystery on the way.

'I'm starting to think that Nick was right,' Elmo said. 'The thieves, who had stolen the book, probably knew something about the mystery and the plan.'

'Mystery, mystery,' I grumbled. 'I'm already sick of this mystery. Maybe we should forget about the mystery.'

'Are you going to give up?' Elmo stared at me in disbelief.

'No,' I grinned. 'I just want to say that the mystery isn't the main point. Ruby wrote that this mystery had happened in one of the secret tunnels, her grandfather had built. So we must just find these secret tunnels. Then we'll be able to work out the mystery.'

'You're right,' Elmo nodded slowly. 'Yeah, Tom, you're absolutely right. We concentrated on the mystery, while we should have concentrated on the tunnels. Maybe we'll learn something about the tunnels from the Turners tomorrow.'

'Maybe,' I agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. An unexpected find**

Next day we met after classes and went straight to "Craigend". On the way there we stopped at a snack shop, where I bought two hot-dogs and quickly ate them.

'Now we can go,' I grinned happily to the others.

'Great,' Nick drawled.

But soon my good mood disappeared because I had an attack of hiccups.

'Stop that, Tom!' Nick yelled crossly.

'You shouldn't eat so many snacks, Tom,' Elmo smiled. 'It's bad for your stomach.'

'Never mind! I'll buy something to drink and be okay soon,' I stopped at a shop.

'Ooh, you make us wait for you again, Moysten,' Nick muttered.

'You're hard to please,' I said disapprovingly. 'Don't hiccup, don't drink.'

'Come on, Tom! Go and buy something to drink. Quickly,' Liz pushed me into the doorway of the shop.

I ran into the shop and in a minute went out with a can of Coca-Cola. Abruptly I opened the can and the brown liquid spurted right on Richelle. She screamed.

'Be careful, you clumsy idiot,' Nick growled.

'Never mind, it will dry soon,' I waved my hand. 'You're in a dark shirt. The spot won't be noticeable.'

Sunny giggled.

'Tom, you're a complete idiot!' Richelle yelled.

I started to drink, trying not to listen to her. But it didn't help me to stop hiccuping. I drank the last drop of Coca-Cola and made a so loud hiccup that people glanced at me disapprovingly. So we went to "Craigend" as Nick cynically said "with music".

Finally we reached the gate of "Craigend" and stopped.

'Let's discuss what we'll say to them,' Sunny said.

'It's a waste of time,' I waved her away impatiently. 'We'll say… hic! hello… hic! Then ask… hic! how are they… hic! doing. Then… hic! we'll ask them to… hic! tell us about… hic! the mystery.'

'Stop hiccuping for a start,' Nick glared at me.

'I can't,' I spread my hands helplessly and gave another series of loud hiccups.

'Tom, try to hold your breath,' Elmo advised.

I also wanted to stop these torturing hiccups, so I held my breath, but it only made me hiccup more loudly and painfully.

'Leave him alone, Nick,' Liz sighed.

'Tom, you try to stay behind us and be quiet,' Sunny warned me. 'The Turners don't like us. Don't make it worse. Okay?'

'Okay… hic!' I agreed.

'Are you doing it on purpose?' Nick was getting more and more irritated.

'Leave me alone. I'm already sick of it, too,' I said wearily and made a few loud hiccups.

'I told you, that's because of snacks,' Elmo repeated and also made a hiccup.

'Well well,' Nick drawled threateningly.

'Don't blame me,' Elmo mumbled. 'Tom's hiccups seem to be catching.'

'Okay let's go,' Sunny opened the gate.

We walked into "Graigend's" garden. The place was crowded as usual at this time of day. The old people walked, sat on benches, read newspapers, played chess with other old people or with their grandchildren. Suddenly I felt something touch my feet. I looked down and saw a ball.

'It's mine,' a boy of five or so ran up to us. 'I played with my granddad and missed the ball,' he explained.

'Here… hic! take it,' I kicked the ball to him. The boy smiled and thanked me. I made a few hiccups in reply. The boy looked at me in astonishment.

'Why are you hiccuping, Mr…?' he asked politely.

'No, I'm not Mr yet,' I objected, hiccuping with every other breath.

'Miss then?' the boy said confidently.

'No, I'm not Miss,' I protested. 'I'm a young man,' I said proudly and made a loud hiccup.

'A young man? What does it mean?' the boy asked.

'Oh God!' Nick groaned.

'What's your name, dear,' Liz asked gently, smiling.

'Pete. Pete Carter,' the talkative boy answered. 'By the way, I know why Mr Young man is hiccuping.'

'Really? Why?' enquired Nick, who was extremely irritated with my hiccups and everything else what I did.

'Because he chews little,' Pete said seriously.

'You're wrong,' Nick muttered gloomily. 'I'd say our Mr Young man chews too much.'

'Fuck off, Kontellis,' I snapped.

'Chew more, Mr Young man,' Pete gave me a piece of advice and ran to the old man, who was sitting on a bench.

'A cute boy,' Sunny grinned.

We walked around the garden, but didn't meet neither the Turners nor their car. Finally we decided to ask Matron where they could be.

We came into "Craigend" and knocked at the door of her office.

'Come in,' we heard her voice.

Liz opened the door and we all squeezed in through the door. Matron sat at her desk. She looked quite upset.

'Come in,' she smiled at us. 'I'm always glad to see _you_. Unlike some, who's just gone away,' she added with irritation, which was unusual for her.

We exchanged glances.

'Matron,' Nick gave her a dazzling smile. 'We'd like to speak to Mr and Mrs Turner. They must be here today. Can you tell us where they are?'

'We want… hic! to ask them… hic! an important question,' I added, interrupting my speech with the painful hiccups.

'Shut up,' Nick hissed, moving me aside. I made a few loud hiccups in reply.

'I'm going to kill him,' Nick murmured. Elmo dug him in the ribs.

'I don't know where these Mr and Mrs Turner are,' Matron exclaimed crossly. 'And I don't want to know!'

'What happened?' Liz opened her mouth in surprise.

'I tried hard to please them,' Matron snapped. 'I prepared and decorated "Craigend". The residents came to welcome them. We set the table in the garden. But they were irritated and sulky and were so rude with old people.'

We looked at each other. These Turners weren't nice people at all.

'Although I have to admit that I added fuel to the flame myself,' she smiled guiltily. 'When Mr Turner started to speak I couldn't help laughing. Such a huge man and squeaks like a girl. So I invited them to have lunch with the residents,' Matron went on speaking. 'But this awful woman, Mrs Turner, barked that they had no time for lunch with us and demanded that we should show them the old books that had belonged to the Craigend family. So I showed them into the library. Mrs Turner had a quick look at the books there and shouted that those books were nothing but rubbish. Then I led them to the storeroom where you'd sorted out things and books. Mrs Turner looked around and demanded more. I gave them your account books. She ran her eyes over your lists and roared that there should have been more books and accused me of stealing and selling the things of the Craigend family.'

'Don't be upset, Matron,' Liz immediately began to comfort her. 'These people are rude with anyone.'

'We… hic! don't like… hic! them either… hic!' I mumbled.

'Listen, Tom,' Matron gave me a sympathetic glance. 'I can't stand your hiccups. Should I bring you a glass of water?'

'Yeah, please,' I agreed instantly.

Matron went out of the office and soon returned with a glass of water. I grabbed the glass and drained it in a moment.

'I think you'll feel better now,' Matron smiled.

I gave her several loud hiccups in reply.

'You're hopeless, Tom,' Liz sighed heavily.

'He who is born a fool is never cured,' Nick mumbled crossly.

'Matron, do you know where we can find the Turners?' Elmo asked. 'We have something to tell them.'

'As far as I know they went to the Glen,' Matron replied. 'Mrs Turner wanted to show her husband the place where she played when she was a little kid.'

We thanked Matron and started for the Glen.

'Liz, dear!' I heard a voice of an old woman. It was Miss Plummer, that woman which Liz visited every Friday. 'What are you doing here, dear? It isn't Friday yet, is it? I haven't made a to-do list for you.'

'Oh, no, Miss Plummer, it isn't Friday yet,' Liz comforted her. 'It's only Wednesday. I'm here because of Amelia, Ruby's cousin.'

'Ah,' Miss Plummer exclaimed. 'Amelia is a naughty girl. I don't like her. She always plays tricks on me.'

'Don't worry, Miss Plummer. She won't play tricks on you anymore,' Liz mumbled, glancing at us uncomfortably. 'You go,' she whispered to us. 'I'll come soon.'

We nodded. Sunny stayed with Liz to comfort the old woman. Nick, Elmo, Richelle and I went towards the Glen.

The Turners' blue car was parked near the Glen.

'Tom, I beg you! Don't argue with them,' Elmo said to me. 'We want to impress them, not to make them angry.'

'Don't worry,' I snapped. 'I know how to impress people.'

'Oh, sure,' Nick snorted.

I turned my back on him. I felt in my pockets and pulled out a chocolate bar. It wasn't fresh, but at least it could help me to get rid of damned hiccups. I slowly chewed the chocolate bar as we made our way to the clearing, where we heard voices of Mr and Mrs Turner. When we came up to the clearing we saw them both.

'Just look at their clothes,' Richelle said with a shudder.

Mrs Turner, in scuffed blue jeans and striped shirt, walked around the clearing, waving her hands and talking to her husband. Her short dark hair hung out under a cap pulled down to her eyes. Mr Turner also was wearing blue jeans, which dangled under his huge stomach, and an incredibly huge, bright green T-shirt, with the words "Devil told me", printed in white, large letters on the front.

'Only devil could tell him to put on this awful T-shirt,' Richelle whispered.

Nick snorted, but Elmo dug him in the ribs. 'Come on, Nick,' he hissed. 'Go.'

Nick stepped onto the clearing. 'Hello,' he said loudly and confidently.

'What are you doing here?' Mr Turner squeaked irritably. The green T-shirt with devilish writing began to wave on his huge stomach.

'I'm so happy,' Nick exclaimed. 'My friends and I have waited a long time for this day, when we can meet Ruby Craigend's relatives! You're here again, in your native house and on your native land! Raven Hill lost so much when Ruby, the last member of the great family died!' he talked grandiloquent nonsense in a rush of sudden inspiration. 'Mr Turner! Mrs Turner! I'm so sorry to bother you, when you're in your trip into your childhood, but my friends and I just couldn't miss such an important moment and we've come to greet you.'

'Dear Mr and Mrs Turner,' Richelle added, noticing that Nick's eloquence would end soon. 'When we heard that you'd arrived in our town to visit your native places, we rushed here to say how much we love and respect the Craigend family!'

Mr Turner's superior face broke into a pleased grin. His wife came up to him and they stood there together, staring at us and listening to Nick and Richelle. Their eyes glittered with pride. I decided to help.

'Only you, Mrs Turner! Only you, Mr Turner!' I exclaimed as if I had caught this inspiration from Nick and Richelle. 'Only the glory of your family! Only the natural tact and sense of your family…' Oh, God! What am I saying! I thought to myself. 'Only you, the last member of the family can…' at this moment I had a fit of hiccups and had to stop.

Nick glared at me. But Mr and Mrs Turner were already beaming. Nick opened his mouth to say something, but at that time Liz and Sunny crept onto the clearing.

'It's a delegation of descendants of your ex-servants!' I exclaimed and hiccuped.

'Servants?' Sunny exclaimed indignantly.

'Shh,' Elmo hissed to her. 'We'll explain later.'

Sunny fell silent.

'Come here, girls,' Mr Turner squeaked with a theatrical triumph. 'See, darling,' he turned to his wife. 'There's a cultural revival happening among young people. And our young friends,' he eloquently stretched out his hand to us, 'prove it!'

He proudly held up his head and took a step back, but trod on a thick branch. The branch broke under his foot, and Mr Turner, swearing crashed to the ground.

'William!' Mrs Turner screamed and rushed to him.

She picked him up so easily that I couldn't help, but thought that she had not only sturdy body, but also strong muscles. The huge man flew up like a feather and was stood up on his feet.

'Are you okay?' Mrs Turner asked him carefully.

'Yes,' her husband showed knightly resistance to the pain. Then he kicked away the treacherous branch and forced himself to laugh nervously.

'Mrs Turner,' Nick gave her a charming smile. 'Craigend was a prominent and important family in Raven Hill. We'd like to know more about Ruby and other members of the family.

'Very good,' Mrs Turner said in her deep bass voice. 'People should know the history of best people of their town.'

'That's right,' her husband added in his thin voice. 'It'll refine your spirit nature. Modern young people are impudent and unintelligent. Yesterday we visited the mansion where my dear wife grew up, and a cheeky young man said to me that the people, who live in those houses,' he jabbed his finger towards Craigend Road, 'didn't invade my wife's land. What an impudence!'

'I didn't…' I started to protest immediately, but Nick quickly kicked my ankle.

'Shut up,' he hissed. 'Thank your lucky stars that they didn't recognize you.'

Mr Turner really didn't seem to recognize his offender in me. 'Do you agree with me, young man?' he asked, looking me in the eyes.

'Oh, of course I do!' I squeaked in the same thin voice.

The others couldn't help laughing.

'You're right,' Mr Turner misunderstood the reason of our laughter. 'Unintelligence and ill-breeding are ridiculous. I…' he broke off and started to feel his pulse. 'Darling, my blood pressure is high again,' he glanced at his wife, startled.

'You're overexcited,' she barked. 'I'll give you the pills.'

She crouched down near the big bag, and pulled out pills and a bottle of mineral water. The fat man sat down on the ground, swallowed a handful of pills and began to feel his pulse again. His fingers were on his wrist; his gaze fixed on his watch. He had so concentrated expression on his face as if he listened to the late ancestors of his dear wife.

'That's better,' finally he pronounced doubtfully.

'Mrs Turner,' Nick said carefully. 'Matron told that Ruby loved the Glen very much and liked to meet here with her friends. I suppose you liked this place as well. It must be so wonderful to visit the place where you played when you were a child.'

'Yes,' the woman nodded. 'Ruby and her friends often met here even when they grew up. And I used to sit here with them, listening to their stories and gossips.'

'Ruby must have told you about the secret tunnels, then,' Nick went on.

'The secret tunnels?' Mrs Turner looked at him in surprise. 'There are no secret tunnels at all.'

'We heard that Mr Craigend, your grandfather, dug a few underground tunnels here,' Liz put in. 'And that something terrible happened in one of them.'

'I advise you not to listen to stupid gossips,' Mrs Turner barked with obvious irritation.

An angry expression crossed Mr Turner's face. And contradicting his own advices that we should know the history of our native land, he squeaked crossly, 'Don't poke your noses into other families' lives.'

'But it was you who told that we should know the history of our native land,' I exclaimed in my fake-surprised tone.

'You told that we should know about the noble families of our town,' Nick added, looking innocent.

Mr Turner went bright red, choked and grabbed his wrist again to feel his pulse. Mrs Turner rushed to the bag.

'We'd better go,' Liz mumbled, glaring at Nick and me.

'Yeah, sure,' the woman didn't even glance at Liz, just waved her away. Mr Turner ostentatiously turned his back on us and didn't say a word.

'You both are impossible,' Sunny giggled as we walked down the path, towards the park. 'You made this fatty hopping mad! I was afraid he'd have a heart attack.'

'Yeah, that's what we can do,' I snorted with laughter.

'By the way, did you notice how angry they became when we mentioned the tunnels and the mystery,' Nick looked at us. 'I think they know about it.'

'Yeah,' Elmo nodded. 'But they completely don't want _us_ to know about it.'

'I can understand it,' Richelle shrugged. 'You wouldn't talk about your plans to a bunch of strange teenagers.'

Nick stopped abruptly. 'That's it,' he muttered. 'We wouldn't.'

'Do you think they arrived in Raven Hill because of this mystery?' Sunny stared at them.

'It explains everything,' Liz nodded slowly.

'If this is so, we have to act quickly,' Elmo cut in. 'Otherwise they'll find the tunnels and the mystery first.'

'What can we do,' Richelle shrugged. 'We know nothing about the mystery and the tunnels. And we have nothing but the stupid plan from Ruby's old diary.'

'Well they don't even have the plan,' Nick said cheerfully.

'They could have it,' I objected. 'They could steal that book.'

'They even weren't in Raven Hill when the book was stolen,' Nick waved me away.

'That's what we think,' I went on arguing. 'They could arrive here earlier without saying to anyone.' Although to be honest, I doubted that the Turners could steal the book from their own house, but I couldn't help arguing when Nick suggested something.

'Rubbish,' Nick snorted. 'Even if they arrived here earlier than we think, they needn't steal the book. They could just come and take it.'

There was some truth in it. I had to admit it. We slowly wandered out of the Glen, towards the park. The sun shined brightly, dazzling us. I regretted that I left my sunglasses at home. I half closed my eyes, looking down at my feet. All of a sudden I noticed a piece of paper in the grass. I came closer. It wasn't rubbish, as I thought first; it was a neatly folded piece of paper. I bent down and picked it up.

'Our Mr Young man has decided to become a cleaner,' Nick sneered.

I unfolded the piece of paper and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I couldn't believe what I saw.

'Take a look!' I yelled.

'What's that, Tom?' Liz turned to us.

'Moysten picked up some rubbish for his collection,' Nick sneered.

'Look at this rubbish before laughing at me,' I said smugly and held the unfolded piece of paper up in front of his face. Nick lazily glanced at the paper and his eyes widened.

'What?' he breathed.

The others also crowded around us and stared at my unexpected find. We couldn't believe our luck. The piece of paper turned out to be the plan of "Craigend" and its surroundings.

'Sometimes the bright sun is a good thing,' I was very proud of myself.

'Good job, Tom,' Sunny smiled at me.

'This is a photocopy of the plan from the stolen book,' Elmo said, studying the plan attentively. 'Seems as if someone lost it.'

'The Turners,' Liz said confidently.

Elmo nodded. 'Probably,' he said. 'Okay, let's go to the Pen. I want to compare these two plans.'

'No,' I objected. 'Let's go to Burger Joe's. I'm starving. I've got to have something to eat.'

'Again?' Liz sighed. 'Tom, you ate less than two hours ago. You've just stopped hiccuping.'

'I'm hungry. What can I do?' I shrugged. In the end we all agreed to go to Burger Joe's. It was much closer than the Pen office.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6. We know where to find the answer**

In Burger Joe's we ordered drinks and meal. Then Elmo pulled out two plans from his bag and put them on the table. We all started to study them. Two drafts were completely alike.

'I'm afraid we won't find anything new here,' Elmo mumbled disappointedly. 'The two plans are exactly alike. Even pictures and crosses are on the same places.'

'But the second plan isn't original. It's a photocopy of the plan from the book,' I reminded them.

'I guess Ruby knew that someone wanted to write an article about her family and gave them her plan of the mansion and its surroundings, that's all,' Liz sighed.

'I think it was the Turners who lost the plan in the Glen,' Sunny said. 'Firstly we know that they know about Ruby's mystery and the secret tunnels. And secondly only they were in the Glen today except us.'

'If you're right, we don't have any chance,' I muttered. 'Mrs Turner grew up here and surely she knows where these secret tunnels are. Or even if she doesn't know, she's the owner of "Craigend", so they can break the walls and easily find the tunnels.'

'They can't,' Elmo objected. '"Craigend" doesn't belong to Mrs Turner and never belonged. She's just Ruby's cousin. Ruby Craigend was the owner of the mansion and she left it to the people of Raven Hill. So we have the same rights here as Mrs Turner.'

'Can you stop chattering for a while?' suddenly Nick muttered. He was still studying two plans. He had rotated them 90 degrees by now, and leaning down closely to the table looked at them in this position. 'A cross here and a cross there… And these two…' he mumbled quietly. 'And this one. And here…and there…'

'Nick?' Richelle put her hand on his arm.

'Hang on,' he muttered blankly.

'The great mind was taken away by the heat,' I sneered.

Nick didn't react. Just kept studying two pieces of paper, mumbling something under his breath.

'Yes!' suddenly he banged his fist on the table. The cups jumped with a clatter. People at another table turned around and looked at us, grinning.

'Be quiet, Nick,' Richelle muttered, bending her head down in confusion.

'Look here,' Nick lowered his voice and pointed at the newer plan.

We all leant down to the table to see. Nick pointed at a cross, drawn on a line of one of the tunnels.

'See?' he asked. 'Now look here,' he pointed at the same place on the first plan. There wasn't any cross on this line. 'Is it clear?' Nick glanced at us expectantly. 'Whatever Ruby's mystery was, it happened here.'

###

'We've lost this game, then,' I muttered gloomily.

'Why?' Nick turned to me.

'Because this place is marked on the plan,' I explained. 'So no matter who lost this plan, they knew where to find.'

'Do you think they realize it?' Nick kept looking at me.

'Of course they realize,' I snapped. 'It's obvious.'

'Is it?' Nick raised one eyebrow.

'I don't think it's so obvious,' Richelle drawled doubtfully. 'There are a lot of crosses and pictures on both plans. It's not so easy to notice that one of the plans has one more cross. It took a while for Nick to notice it.

'Yeah,' Liz put in cheerfully. 'If we hadn't the earlier version of the plan from Ruby's diary, we wouldn't notice anything unusual. Ruby was a clever woman. And when that journalist wrote an article about her family, she marked this place on the plan and gave it to the journalist. It could be worked out only by someone who knew about the previous plan.'

'I guess she didn't want other people would find it,' Elmo nodded. 'And I'm sure that the Turners haven't worked it out yet. Ruby and her cousin weren't close. So the Turners surely don't know much about this mystery.'

'You're speaking as if _we_ know much about this mystery,' I muttered.

'We know nothing about the mystery,' Nick shifted in his chair impatiently. 'But we've worked out where to find the answer. That's the point.'

'You're right!' suddenly I cheered up. 'Let's find this place then!' I jumped to my feet.

'Where are you going?' Elmo stopped me.

'To "Craigend",' I breathed. 'We have the plan. We know where to find the answer. We just have to find the door of the tunnel and go to this place, using the plan.'

'Oh yeah, sure.' Nick sneered. 'Tom decided that everyone, including the Turners, should know that we have Ruby Craigend's diaries and want to find the secret tunnel where something is hidden.'

The others laughed. I pouted and sat down on my chair again.

'Okay, it's clear,' Elmo said seriously. 'We can't go to "Craigend" while the Turners are there. If they see us going around and looking for something in "Craigend", they'll understand that we know something.'

'Let's wait, then,' I had to admit that they were right.

We fell silent and stared at the plans for a while.

'Look here,' Sunny said finally, pointing at the line representing one of the tunnels on the plan. 'This tunnel begins in "Craigend" and ends quite far from it.' She traced the line with her finger from "Craigend" to an open ground, with "the field" written on it. The line ended in the centre of the field. There was a cross on the end of the line. A tiny tower was drawn near the cross.

'I guess this is an emergency exit from the mansion,' Elmo brightened. 'If we find it we won't have to wait when the Turners leave "Craigend".'

'Yeah, but how will we find this place?' Nick frowned, looking closely at the microscopic tower on the plan. 'I can't understand what it is.'

'Maybe it's a grave?' I suggested the first thing that came into my head. Liz glanced at me, frightened.

'Or maybe it's a chapel,' Sunny suggested.

'Rich, how do you think what it is?' Nick leant towards Richelle and tapped her hand.

'Mmm?' she grumbled and reluctantly looked up from her hair she'd been examining during this conversation. She put her head on one side and lazily glanced at the picture. 'It looks like a windmill.'

'Right!' Liz exclaimed. 'People built windmills on open ground in old days.'

'Maybe,' Elmo agreed. 'And it was logical to end the tunnel inside the windmill. No one would guess. But,' he added gloomily, 'now there's neither the windmill, nor the field.'

'But we can try to find at least remains of that windmill,' I said. 'Ah Mr Craigend! Dug these tunnels for lack of anything better to do and didn't leave the clue where to find them!'

'Tom's right,' Sunny nodded. 'Let's go and see. If we find the remains of the windmill, we'll probably be able to find the entrance into the tunnel.'

We paid for the drinks and went to the park. Then we crossed the park till we came to the low wall that ran along the harbour side. We climbed over the wall, strode along the coast and back into the land, where, as we knew now, a field with the windmill was in Mr Craigend's time. Now there was neither the field nor the windmill. It was an endless meadow, covered with grass and shrubs.

'How are we supposed to work out where the windmill was?' Elmo said thoughtfully, looking around.

'It's easy!' I really didn't see a problem. 'The windmill is drawn in the centre of the field on the plan. So we have to look for it in the centre of the field.'

'Yeah,' Nick muttered, 'it's very easy. We just have to find the ex-field here and then find its centre. Just tell us, Moysten-Wonderful, from where to measure.'

I sighed. He was right. Boring, as usual, but right. What seemed very easy on the plan, wasn't so easy in reality. The field had been overgrown with grass and shrubs, and had turned into an endless meadow. It was just impossible to define the boundaries of the ex-field.

'Hey,' Richelle sniffed. 'Can you smell something?'

I sniffed. 'Someone's preparing food not far from here,' I whispered.

We fell silent and trying to be as quiet as possible, carefully walked forward. Soon we saw a tent, hidden behind the bushes.

We crept closer. Two young men were standing near the tent. One of them held two shovels in his hands. The other one held a bucket.

'Tourists,' I drawled disappointedly.

'Tourists with shovels and the bucket here?' Sunny looked at me doubtfully.

The guys said something to each other and walked towards the harbour. There were a lot of things left near the tent: dishes, a kettle, a rug and other things.

'I guess they'll return soon,' Liz whispered. 'Otherwise they'd put their things away.'

'It's strange,' Elmo said. 'What are they digging here?'

'Let's see what's in their tent,' Nick suggested.

'Nick, we can't!' Liz exclaimed in horror.

'Liz, why would tourists live here? There's nothing interesting to look at,' Nick objected.

'But it doesn't give us rights to break into their private life,' I supported Liz.

'Stay here. I'll have a look,' Sunny said calmly and sneaked behind the bushes. A few minutes later she came back.

'What's there?' Liz demanded.

'Nothing interesting except one thing,' Sunny replied. 'The stolen book.'

'What?' we all gaped at her.

'Yeah,' Sunny nodded. 'The book about noble people, stolen from "Craigend" is there, hidden under the rug.'

'It means that these guys know about the secret tunnels and look for the door here,' Nick said. 'Sunny, you should have taken the book along.'

'To let them know that someone was in their tent and knows what they are doing?' Sunny objected. 'Besides, it's not necessary. I've read the article. There's no any mention about the doors of the tunnels. But I've found the description of Ruby's mystery.'

'And what's the mystery?' I asked impatiently.

'You'll be disappointed,' Sunny grinned. 'The legend says that Ruby's grandfather was afraid that his house could be robbed or attacked. So he ordered to dig several tunnels, leading in different directions, to have the opportunity to leave the house. It was difficult times and rich houses often were attacked and robbed. So he decided to hide some expensive things, just in case. He brought them into one of the tunnels and left a guard there. Two days later, this guard was found dead on the street. He was killed. No one knows how he could get on the street, though he had to be down in the tunnel. The old Mr Craigend also died soon. And no one knows what happened to those things, he'd hid in the tunnel.'

We all stared at Sunny. Richelle clutched at Nick's hand. Liz also was pale. Elmo quite the opposite was red with excitement.

'We can find these things!' he exclaimed.

'We should go out of here,' Sunny objected. 'These guys are also looking for these things. If they find us here… Well I don't want to think about it.'

'Come on,' Nick nodded and grabbing Richelle's hand, dragged her away. Liz and Sunny followed them. Elmo and I exchanged glances and trailed after them.

'Hold on,' Elmo tried to stop them. 'The guys are away. We can look for the door here.'

'No,' Sunny said gently. 'Elmo, it's dangerous. We can look for the door of the tunnel in "Craigend". The Turners must have gone away by this time.'

'Okay,' Elmo nodded slowly. 'Maybe you're right. I have a feeling that these guys have already found the remains of the windmill. They looked so determined when they were going away with shovels and the bucket.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7. Ruby's mystery**

The Turner's blue car wasn't anywhere in sight near "Craigend". We strode along the garden, still full of reading or walking old people, and came into the old mansion.

'From what should we start?' I asked doubtfully. Only now I realized that "Craigend" was a quite big building and the door of the tunnel could be hidden anywhere.

'Let's find Matron,' Liz suggested. 'She can help. Excuse me,' she called a nurse, who was passing by, 'do you know where Matron is?'

'She's away,' the nurse replied. 'She went to the hospital.'

'Oh, thank you,' Liz mumbled. The nurse hurried on.

'Come on!' Nick exclaimed impatiently. 'We're wasting time!'

'Hold on,' Elmo stopped him. 'How are you going to look for the door? We can't possibly tap every wall and rummage in every room in "Craigend" We don't even know how this door looks like.'

'Let's divide the area,' Sunny suggested. 'Let's meet, say, in half an hour in the main hall.'

We divided into three groups and went in different directions. Nick and Richelle wandered towards the kitchen. Liz and Sunny decided to look near Matron's office, which was Mr Craigend's office in old times. Elmo and I went towards the residents' room.

We slowly wandered through the hallway, feeling and tapping the walls. But it didn't take a long time for us to realize that it was the same as to look for a needle in the haystack. The outside part of "Craigend" didn't change. But the inside of the house had changed a lot. The door of the tunnel could be everywhere, including the residents' rooms.

From time to time we came across the residents. Some of them looked at us disapprovingly, some with interest.

'It's useless,' finally I sighed. 'Let's go to the others. Maybe they found something.

But they didn't. None of us found anything interesting. Nick grabbed two plans and settled down in the soft armchair, studying them.

'Let's go to the library,' Liz whispered, when another old man gave us a curious glance. 'People hardly go there at this time of day.'

In the library we sat down at the desk and for the hundredth time started to discuss where the door of the tunnel could be.

'It must be there,' suddenly Richelle looked up at us and pointed at the ancient shelf stand with books.

'Really? Why' I sneered.

'It's elementary, my dear Tom,' she drawled lazily. 'First of all, the library is the _only_ room that wasn't changed since Mr Craigend's time. And secondly, this is the _only_ old shelf stand. Well except the one that you broke two days ago.'

'She's right,' Nick cheered up. We all ran up to the shelf stand. It was built into the wall.

We started to work. We took books and stacked them on the floor, feeling and tapping the wall behind the shelf stand. None of us thought of the mess, we'd been creating. Finally Elmo called out us.

'Here,' he said hoarsely.

We all came over to look. He pointed at a wide, rusty top of a nail. Then he pressed it. The top of the nail obediently drove into the wall. Something scratched.

The left part of the shelf stand moved a little aside. We grabbed it and started to pull. The shelf stand slowly moved. Finally the shelf stand was moved aside enough for us to see a big, dark hole. A smell of damp and mould floated up to us from the hole. Stone steps, covered with dust, disappeared into pitch black darkness. We glanced at each other. Now when the entrance of the tunnel was found, no one dared to take a step there.

'Okay, let's go,' Nick recovered first.

'Hang on,' Sunny said coldly. She went over to the door of the library and locked it. Elmo, meanwhile, rummaged in one of the drawers of the librarian desk and pulled out two pocket torches.

'I saw Matron put them there,' he smiled shyly at us.

Then one by one we stepped into the hole and started slowly moving down the steep steps. We all went. Even Richelle. She clutched at Nick's sleeve and shuddered, but couldn't bear to be left behind.

Finally we reached the ground level and found ourselves in the dark, narrow tunnel. I fidgeted uneasily. I hated narrow, dark places. They make me feel panic. And I already felt my heart start beating faster. Pull yourself together, Moysten, I ordered to myself. I didn't want the others to know how I felt.

'Okay, let's go,' Nick slowly went forward, lighting the floor in front of him. We trailed after him.

The tunnel smelt of damp and earth. And it was cold there. We crept along in silence.

'I heard people liked to make traps in such tunnels,' finally Richelle whispered.

'What traps,' even always calm Sunny began to worry.

'Different traps,' Elmo replied instead of Richelle. 'In old times people, who built such tunnels had an incredible fantasy. They didn't want to build plain secret tunnels. They wanted to have traps in case someone chased them. For example, the owner knows that in a certain place he or she must go close to the wall. But the chaser doesn't know that and keeps running. And the floor falls down under the chaser's feet.'

'I've got a computer game where you go through the underground tunnels full of such traps,' Nick rattled on. 'My favourite trap was when the floor falls down under your feet and you fall into a big pit with hungry tigers.'

'Charming,' I muttered. Probably Nick thinks that it's the best place to talk about such things.

'Mr Craigend couldn't do such awful things,' Liz said firmly.

'Of course he couldn't,' Nick drawled. 'Where would he find tigers here?'

'He could use wolves or snakes,' I snorted.

'Or he could mount sharpened stakes of steel in the pit,' Nick grinned. 'The effect would be the same. The stakes would pierce through people's flesh and bone…'

Richelle whimpered and clutched at Liz's hand.

'Shut up you both,' Liz hissed, comforting her.

'Come on,' Elmo said calmly. 'I don't think there are traps here, but all the same we must be careful.'

And we went further. Nick went first. Then Richelle. Then Liz, Sunny, I and finally Elmo. I can't say that I was happy. Dark, narrow tunnels weren't my favourite places. But of course I couldn't stay away. So I went, trying to think about pleasant things. It was difficult though, because the more we were deepening into the tunnel, the more the air was becoming musty and stale. It was difficult to breath.

Suddenly Richelle stopped abruptly and screamed at the top of her lungs. My heart nearly stopped beating. I was just overcome with fear. So were the others. Richelle kept screaming, fitfully running her hands over her face.

'Richelle, what's up?' Nick grabbed her hand.

'Richelle, what happened,' Liz rushed up to her from other side. 'Richelle, answer me!'

'Cobweb,' Richelle sobbed. 'It stuck all over my face.' She kept running her hands over her face, spreading the cobweb.

We all sighed with relief. Richelle scared us all to death.

'Calm down,' Nick hugged her. 'How could you get into the cobweb? I walked in front of you.'

'How? How?' she sobbed, letting Liz wipe her face with a handkerchief. 'I walked close to the wall.'

'But just imagine how old this cobweb must be,' I grinned, trying to stop my voice from trembling. 'Just imagine that you've found the cobweb that was made hundred years ago by an ancient spider.'

'I'd rather she found something more useful,' Sunny muttered, squeezing past them and grabbing the torch from Nick's hands. We all followed her. The tunnel seemed to lead down.

'Just think where we are,' Sunny said slowly.

No one answered. We all realized that if something happened, we wouldn't be found. But none of us wanted to go back. Ruby's mystery was somewhere close.

Suddenly Sunny stopped so suddenly that we all bumped into her. I peered over Liz's shoulder and saw a wall of stones and earth. The ceiling had collapsed down. There was no way further.

'Fuck!' I kicked at the pile of stones. The tunnel instantly replied with a threatening rumble and a big stone fell down from the ceiling, nearly hitting me on the head.

'Get back!' Nick roared.

We all immediately turned round and bolted through the dark tunnel back towards the library. Only when we reached the staircase, we dared to stop and take breath.

'We're lucky,' Elmo said, glaring at me. 'The rockfall is fresh. We could have been buried there.'

The others didn't tell me anything, but their eyes said a lot. I tried to look casual, but, of course, I also realized that we could have been buried under the stones and earth. And this thought wasn't cheerful.

'Let's go out of here,' Liz started to climb up the stairs.

'Hang on,' Nick said, studying the plan again in the torchlight. 'Look here,' he said. 'There must be another door in this wall,' he said, pointing with his finger at the line on the plan. This line crossed the tunnel where we were standing, and led straight to the marked place where Ruby's mystery was. 'Let's find it,' he suggested, his eyes sparkling in the torchlight.

'But the rockfall…' Richelle tried to stop him.

'The rockfall is quite far from here,' Nick interrupted impatiently.

He turned round and went back into the darkness of the tunnel. We all trailed after him. Finally he stopped and stared at the plan. 'It must be somewhere here,' he said doubtfully and pointed at the wall.

'Great,' I snorted. 'If we begin to tap every brick on this wall it'll took a whole life for us to find the door.'

Without answering Nick looked at the plan again.

'Usually opening mechanisms of secret doors are made at a height of people's shoulder,' Elmo pointed out. 'In case someone chased the owner, he or she could easily open the door.'

'Right,' Sunny nodded. 'It makes the task easier.'

We split up and started tapping on the wall at the height of an average man's shoulder. Soon a brick drove into the wall under my fingers and the part of the wall slowly moved aside.

'Found it!' I yelled.

The others ran up to me. Everyone was too excited and couldn't say a word. Nick turned the beam of his pocket torch into the darkness of the new tunnel.

'Do… do you understand that no one went here after Ruby's grandfather?' Liz stammered.

'It's just like a hello from the underworld,' I shuddered.

We stepped through the door into the tunnel. Unlike the first tunnel, this one was quite wide.

'Mr Craigend had good passages made,' Sunny said as we walked forward.

'If it weren't for this dust,' I muttered. I was allergic to dust and this dusty, dark place was starting seriously to disturb me.

'Look,' Elmo whispered, stopping abruptly and turning the beam of his torch to the left.

It was a recess in the wall, which looked like a tiny room without windows and doors.

'Is it here?' I breathed. 'Have we found the mystery?'

No one answered, because Elmo's torch caught a long coffer in its beam. Nick rushed to the coffer and ran his hand over its lid. A huge cloud of dust immediately flew into the air. The coffer together with Nick disappeared out of our sight. Elmo and Liz rushed to Nick.

'It's locked,' I heard Nick's excited voice.

'Let me,' Elmo said.

Sunny, Richelle and I came up to them as soon as the cloud of dust settled down. Elmo was already picking at the lock on the coffer with a small folded knife. Nick and Liz watched him in silence.

'Don't move,' suddenly I heard someone bark behind my back.

I turned around. A beam of a powerful torch dazzled me.

'Don't move,' the same voice repeated. Then the beams of two powerful torches were turned towards the coffer and I could see the faces of two men. It was those two tourists. They stood in the entrance of the recess. They looked like speleologists in their black tracksuits and enormous hiking boots. But they had knives in their hands, which threateningly glinted in the light.

'How did you get here?' one of them asked.

We didn't answer.

'How did you get here?' the man repeated irritably.

'From there,' Nick pointed at the tunnel where the rockfall was.

I decided to distract them to buy time. 'Are you speleologists? Are you exploring the tunnels?' I asked with a stupid smile on my face.

'Shut up,' the second, smaller man warned me.

I realized that these two men weren't in a friendly mood. So I decided to support Nick and trying to look scared, I pointed at the tunnel with rockfall and said, 'we've come from that tunnel. It leads to the surface of the ground.'

The two men looked at each other. The smaller one nodded. 'Let's have a look,' he said to his mate. The other man nodded. 'Yeah. But first tie them,' he jerked his head at us.

My heart sank. I hoped that they, or at least one of them, would go to see the tunnel. It would give us a chance to run. But now…

The taller man came up to us and pulled the coil of rope off his leather belt. He warned us that if one of us tried to run, he'd cut the others. We looked at each other in a panic. And then, with a flash of hope, I noticed that Sunny wasn't with us.

Liz and Richelle were crying. Nick and Elmo looked quite pale, but they seemed to realize that while Sunny was away, we still had the chance to escape. But now we had no alternative, but to obey the men.

The man quickly and adroitly tied us all together with his long rope so tightly that we couldn't move. The other smaller man at that time was already picking at the lock on the coffer. Soon something cracked in the lock and the man raised the lid of the coffer.

'Oh, wow!' he exclaimed admiringly.

His mate finished tying us and ran up to him. They both started to rummage in the coffer. We heard the rustle of paper. Then a few narrow, long rolls were thrown on the ground. It was pictures. The men grabbed one of them and unrolled it. 'Wow! It costs a fortune!' one of them breathed. He grabbed another roll and wanted to unroll it too, but the other stopped him. 'You can see it later,' he growled, glancing meaningfully at us. 'We have no time to waste. Put them back.'

They put the rolls back into the coffer and closed the lid. Then they started to discuss something. They spoke so quietly that I couldn't understand a word. But I saw that they were arguing. Finally they stopped talking and stared at us.

'I'm sorry, but unfortunately you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, kids,' one of them said to us, grinning ominously.

None of us answered.

'Now we're going to untie you two,' the man pointed at Nick and me. 'You two big guys will help us to drag this,' he jerked his head at the coffer. 'If you do something wrong, the other four will be sorry. Clear?'

We didn't answer. The perspective wasn't good. The men wanted us to drag the coffer through the tunnel which ended with the rockfall. And when they realized that we lied that this tunnel led to the surface, they would get really furious.

Sunny, hurry up! I pleaded to myself. All what we could do now was to play for time and to lead them as slowly as possible.

'We won't go,' Nick said firmly.

'Are you mad?' I whispered to him.

'What?' the man bellowed.

'We won't go anywhere with you,' Nick repeated, slowly pronouncing each word.

'Then we'll start with the girls,' the man pulled out the knife from his pocket and took a step towards Richelle. She screamed.

'Agree with them,' I hissed to Nick.

Nick opened his mouth to agree, but right at that time a loud voice roared, 'Stay where you are.' The guard from "Craigend" was standing in the entrance of the recess with a gun in his hand.

'Help!' Liz and Richelle screamed.

Two criminals hesitated.

'Drop your knives on the ground!' the guard yelled. 'Put your hands up!'

Knives fell on the floor with a clatter. The two men slowly raised their hands.

'Thank heavens!' I breathed with relief.

At that moment one of the men abruptly turned round and blinded the guard with his torch. The latter squeezed his eyes shut. The other man knocked him down. We saw the guard's gun fly into the darkness, but couldn't do anything. The two big, strong men pounced on the guard. He struggled hard, but it was an uneven contest. Again I started to think that we wouldn't be saved, when a small shadow swept past us in the darkness and hit one of the criminals on the head. He gasped and dropped onto the ground with a thud. The second criminal let go of the guard, grabbed Sunny and threw her aside. Then he helped his mate to his feet and they both slipped into the dark tunnel and disappeared from sight.

'Stop!' the guard roared. But it was too late. The criminals ran away.

'Go to the left!' Nick yelled. 'To the left! There's a way out! Near the harbour!

The guard rushed to the left.

'I'll show the police the place where the tunnel comes out on the surface,' Sunny yelled and rushed to the right.

'I wonder if anyone is going to untie us,' I muttered.

'I am,' Matron appeared in front of us so unexpectedly as if she came from another world. 'Oh, people!' she bent down over us, 'What have you done! You could have been killed!'

'We've found Mr Craigend's hidden things! That's what we've done!' Elmo shouted excitedly.

'What!' Matron threw up her hands. As soon as she untied us we all rushed over to the coffer. Even in the torchlight everyone found something interesting. Richelle, rummaging in the trinkets, exclaimed occasionally, 'Oh wow! Faberge!' or 'Emeralds!'

Liz admired nice jewel boxes. Nick pulled out an ancient vase, and gazed at it, probably trying to work out its value.

I carefully unrolled one of the rolls, lying on the floor and gaped at it.

'John Constable!' I exclaimed admiringly. I just couldn't believe what I saw. 'Can it be the original?'

'Is it expensive?' Nick asked curiously.

'Expensive? Are you kidding me?' I shook my head in disbelief. 'If it's the original it costs a fortune.'

'That's Ruby's mystery,' Elmo smiled.

'We've caught them,' the lyric mood was broken by the guard, who had appeared in the recess. 'We've tied them. One of them shouted that these things belonged to them because they were the descendents of the Craigend family.'

'The descendents of the Craigend family?' Elmo repeated in surprise.

'Thank you very much!' Liz thanked the guard sincerely. 'You've saved us.'

The next two weeks were crazy. We were interrogated by the police from the city. A lot of different scientists and archeologists also enquired us and everyone in "Craigend". The coffer with its content was sent for further examination. After it all things in this coffer were found original, including the landscape painting by John Constable, that I had admired so much. All this things cost a fortune.

As we found out later, Mr Craigend, Ruby's grandfather, had been known as a very practical person. He had a great collection of pictures, jewelry and other expensive things. And for some reason he decided to hide some of the most expensive things from his collection. Probably he wasn't sure that his children wouldn't sell them after his death. Or maybe he had other reasons. Anyway, he put the most expensive things into the coffer and hid it in the recess of one of the tunnels. No one knows and will never know who killed that guard, Mr Craigend had left there. It could be just a coincidence, or Mr Craigend could order to kill the guard so that no one would know where the coffer had been hidden. When Mr Craigend felt that he was going to die soon, he wrote about the coffer in his documents, and left the new plan of the passages, where he marked the place where the coffer had been hidden, which was found many years later by his granddaughter Ruby and her friends. But by this time they were too old to play treasure hunters. So Ruby gave this plan to the journalist, who was writing an article about her family. She was a clever woman and she knew that no one would notice anything unusual in this plan. Only someone, who knew about the first plan could work out that the plan in the book had a mark, showing the place with the hidden coffer.

All things from the coffer were given to "Craigend". And we'd got our photographs on front pages of newspapers. And not only in our local newspaper the Pen, but even in a big city paper. That made Richelle happy. She expected that any moment a famous producer would give her a phone call and offer a starring role in a film.

We received a lot of money of course, which made Nick happy. As for me, I was happy just to see the originals of pictures of famous painters. Though, I have to admit that I also was glad to have heaps of money in my wallet.

By the way, those two men didn't lie that they were the descendants of the Craigend family. Ruby's father had a sister, who had run away with her lover. She didn't return into Raven Hill, but she knew the legend about hidden things in the tunnel. These two young men were her grandchildren. And all their life they'd been hearing about the treasure in the tunnel. When they grew up, they found out the place where the mansion was and arrived here to find the coffer.

But right at that time other relatives of the Craigend family, Mr and Mrs Turner, arrived in Raven Hill. Two brothers realized that they had to act quickly, otherwise they'd lose. They got into the storeroom in "Craigend" through the broken window and stole the book, where as they knew, the plan of the passages must have been. After that they started to look for the entrance in the meadow.

By the way, as it turned out, the Turner family arrived here with the same aim. They didn't have the plan of the passages, but they knew that Ruby had it. So they were going to look through the old books and documents to find it.

But as fate would have it, we found the plan in Ruby's diaries before them.


End file.
